A new model of health surveillance: lessons learned from epidemiology

Occupational medicine in the last few years is trying to tune its objectives to the changing needs of the working world. The continuous reduction of incidence of work related diseases progressively substituted with chronic degenerative ones, suggests a different strategy to prevent occupational diseases and to protect workers health. Health surveillance should not be limited only to draw up the work qualification but should be the starting point to plan intervention useful both to workers and to the general population. Corner stone of this endeavour is the epidemiological research focused on the improvement of quality of life.