Occupational health care organisation varies across countries. For example: in the Netherlands, employees report sick through their employer, while in other countries they may need a medical certificate from their general practitioner. And in Germany, occupational health physicians mainly see healthy workers, whereas in the Netherlands the focus is still largely on individual guidance during sickness absence. We actively share and gather knowledge at the international level. The NVAB Committee for International Relations works to make the knowledge we gain internationally accessible to our members. We are a member of the Guidelines International Network (GIN), which gives us access to international sources, collaborations and working groups on specific topics related to guideline development. We are also active in the International Occupational Medicine Society Collaborative (IOMSC), an international partnership of scientific professional associations in occupational health. Read more below.
More on NVAB
The Netherlands Society of Occupational Medicine (NVAB) started in 1946 as a separate section of the Association of Public Health and was officially founded in 1953. Nowadays about 90% of the occupational physicians in The Netherlands, i.c. more than 2000, is NVAB-member. One of NVAB’s goals is enhancement of the scientific basis of occupational health practice and improvement of the professional quality of occupational physicians. One of the tools in a quality-improving strategy is the development, implementation and evaluation of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines. Therefore in 1998, the NVAB started a programme for the development and implementation of evidence-based practice guidelines. To professionalize these activities, NVAB set up a Centre of Excellence in 2003.
NVAB Centre of Excellence
One of our main tasks is to develop evidence based practice guidelines in occupational health. In addition to this, NVAB is also involved in the development and implementation of multidisciplinary clinical guidelines for the integration of work-related aspects. Another important issue in NVAB’s quality policy is medical audit. Development and organization of medical audits is a key activity of NVAB’s Centre of Excellence.
Core values of the occupational health physician
NVAB published this statement in April 2013. It describes the 10 normative principles (statements) which are relevant for the quality of an Occupational Physicians work. Here you find our statement (pdf).
Occupational health in the Netherlands
In Occupational Health at Work we published an article with explanation how Occupational Health (OH) is coordinated and delivered in the Netherlands, and the changes that are now emerging to ensure a modern, evidencebased approach to OH provision: pp 19-23_vol 6 issue 5 Occupational Health at Work 2010 (pdf)