Periodic Medical Examinations in the Russian Federation: Challenges of Data Recording in the National Occupational Health System (Experience of the Sverdlovsk Region)

Abstract

Background: As of today, there is no unified health information system that registers and systematizes the results of periodic medical examinations of workers exposed to occupational hazards in the Russian Federation. Our objective was to examine the results of periodic medical examinations in the Sverdlovsk Region over a five-year period. Materials and methods: We reviewed medical reports and conclusions issued by regional health facilities in 2015–2019 and submitted to the Regional Occupational Health Center of the Yekaterinburg Medical Research Center for Prophylaxis and Health Protection in Industrial Workers, and analyzed completeness and timeliness of their submission. Results: We established that occupational health assessment based on the results of periodic medical examinations is complicated by late and incomplete data reporting by healthcare facilities of the Sverdlovsk Region. Conclusions: Our findings prove the importance of creating a “Periodic Medical Examination” subsystem of the unified state health information system. Providing access to standardised results of periodic medical examinations based on a single digital platform to all professional participants of the national occupational health system will enable data recording, analysis and assessment at the interregional and intersectoral levels, as well as at the level of business entities, and facilitate their use for the purposes of workers’ health risk management. Timeliness of reporting and completeness of date entry in the “Periodic Medical Examination” subsystem (or a Federal Registry of Periodic Medical Examinations) may be monitored and verified by local Rospotrebnadzor bodies to be connected to the unified state health information systems of constituent entities of the Russian Federation.