The education and function of the industrial health team.

Abstract

The last 100 years have been remarkable for the technological advances which have changed indus trial and domestic life. While these changes have raised standards of living, they have also thrown up new medical and social problems which confront us both as citizens and as doctors. Some of these important medical and social problems are ths direct result of the circumstances of occupation, and that branch of medicine which deals with them is called occupational or industrial medicine. Health cannot be narrowly confined. The doctor must be concerned with the whole life. The field, however, is so vast that it can only be studied in depth if it is suitably broken down. Occupational medicine is concerned not only with the prevention and treatment of industrial accidents and diseases, it includes an appraisal of the many physiological and psychological factors of work. Many complex and difficult problems are involved and their solution calls for the close cooperation of the educationist, the social scientist, and the economist, as well as those whose basic training has been in the medical sciences. Occupational medicine differs from some other branches of medicine in that its successful practice depends on the sanctions of others. It can achieve little without the cooperation of employer and employed. Both management and workers must understand the purpose of an industrial health service, and the respective roles they play in pro moting health in an industrial community. The education of the two main parties in industry must therefore be of considerable importance.