Preventive medicine caught my attention during MBBS. I was drawn by its potential to influence the health of society. I started working in an HIV-AIDS prevention program for a high-risk group. While doing this work, I came to the realisation that despite the great potential of preventive medicine it wasn’t as direct as curative medical services. It required proactive and systematic efforts through strategies, continuous monitoring, statistics, analysis, and importantly skilful implementation in the community. This realisation and experience inspired me to focus on occupational health where I currently practice in an industrial set-up. With a large number of people working in industries all through the country, even a small contribution in this area can lead to significant change in the health of the nation.
Unlike my first job where I was just providing services to end-users under a well-designed strategy developed by the corporate office, in the industrial set-up, I was the key person to design, develop, implement, and review the strategy and programs to prevent and protect employee health. It was as exciting as it could be. It was both a challenge and an opportunity. I was slow to start as every step was new. A lot of people guided me through this stage. Since most beginners are likely to face similar challenges at the outset, I thought it would be great to provide some much needed guide. This prompted me to start outlining basic objectives and practical things to be done by an occupational health physician in the industry. I started publishing this on a blog and with time moved to a full-scale website https://occupationalhealth.in to provide a better user experience and engagement. To consolidate all the writings, I started writing version-1 of this manual and published on the website. It was well received and people appreciated it. Heartfelt thanks for that.
With thoughts evolving and new insights from various sources after publishing the first iteration of the manual, it became necessary to update the manual. Accordingly, updates have been added and fine-tuned. I feel it has evolved from the earlier version. I hope you all find it beneficial.
Please download the manual from the attachments.
Update: V2.3 attached. It has an additional chapter on how to be effective.
Update: V2.2 attached. It has few additions to OH services strategy.
Update: V2.1 attached. It has certain update to OHC Dashboard and added Wellness Dashboard. Also, it is print ready. You can take print in booklet form, center staple and use like a printed book.
Dr. Rudraswamy HK
