Tracking Employee Health in Remote Locations: A simple tool to collect diagnostic information to monitor health patterns while maintaining confidentiality

Occupational health surveillance is challenging when petroleum company employees and contractors are working in high risk remote locations. Workers are potentially at risk for diseases endemic to these areas, and in-country resources and infrastructure may be limited or nonexistent in the early phases of a project. Under these conditions, close monitoring of serious illness and emerging trends in communicable disease are important for appropriate prevention and intervention programs. To meet these needs, a simple tool called the "Health Reporting System" (HRS) was developed by the medical and epidemiology function for use in exploration/development phases of projects in countries outside the U.S. The basis of the system is a tool to collect consistent information about each worker visit to a field clinic. Data are recorded using either a one-screen data entry function or via one-page forms to be entered at a central location. HRS has been used in Chad, Cameroon and Sakhalin. The poster session will illustrate the computer system and training processes, and explain how HRS has been adaptable to a variety of clinical settings and circumstances regarding data entry, quality control and reporting. It will also describe how HRS data can be used to identify patterns of possible food/waterborne illness to facilitate appropriate follow-up actions, and how the data can be summarized to show patterns and trends for a wide range of health events.