Advent of occupational health services research

After lagging behind health services research in general health care, resea rch is now examining health services provided to workers suffering occupati onal injuries and illnesses. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Workers' Compensation Healt h Initiative, the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (now the Agenc y for Healthcare Research and Quality), and the Canadian Institute for Work and Health co-sponsored a June, 1999, conference to explore research needs in this area. Fundamental tenets for advancing occupational health service s research include: adopting the goal of improving occupational health care , including better integration of preventive and curative care; creating st andardized interstate occupational health care data sets that include medic al, economic, and patient perspectives; better defining quality in occupati onal care and developing appropriate performance measures; in addition to m edical costs, assessing social, economic, medical and functional outcomes o f care; considering the connections between work and health, including gene ral health services; and addressing the need to train qualified occupationa l health services researchers. Published 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc(dagger).