Designing prevention-oriented software for workplace health and safety

✍ Scribed by Neil Maizlish

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 111 KB
• Volume: 31
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0271-3586
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0274(199701)31:1<64::aid-ajim10>3.0.co;2-5

✦ Synopsis

Rapid changes in technology and health services organization are propelling informationdriven decision making in all aspects of business. The potential of electronic data processing to reduce costs and increase effıciency has been heralded, but disease and injury prevention have received scant attention. Prevention-oriented software for surveillance and disability management must generate population-and case-level measures of magnitude and severity of occupational injury and illness. A public domain program, called WIZARD, was developed as a model. With 12 data elements, it generates, from injury and employment files, injury-and return-to-work rates, avoidable costs, attributable cases using several reference rates, and case lists from screening criteria. In conjunction with an explicit case definition, screening criteria for case follow-up, and guidelines for medical, disability, and health and safety management, software can play a significant role in prevention. Am.