At the request of the CDC’s National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, the Institute of Medicine will conduct a (2011) study of the rationality and feasibility of incorporating patients’ work information into electronic health records. Information from this study will inform efforts at NIOSH to demonstrate feasibility of the inclusion of work information in electronic health records by a target date of 2013, and to provide rationale for the inclusion of work information in meaningful use guidelines. Access to patients’ work information – such as patient occupation, industry of employer, and work history and exposures in some instances – can provide patients’ medical care providers with powerful information for the prevention of work-related injuries and illnesses. The ability to aggregate health data by occupation and or/industry provides surveillance data not only for describing the burden of work-related health problems, but also for describing the distribution of various health outcomes by occupation and industry, and for targeting prevention and intervention programs by occupation or industry group (e.g., workplace wellness programs, medical screenings, etc.). The committee meeting took place on June 2 in Washington, D.C.; the meeting was open to the public.

The IOM announcement can be found at:

http://www.iom.edu/Activities/Environment/OccupationalHealthRecords