Mobile Health Units and Global Occupational Health

In 2008, the Turkish Ministry of Labour’s division called ISGUM (Directorate for Research on Occupational Health and Safety) was charged with developing mobile health units to extend occupational health services to small and medium enterprises, which produce a large part of the national GDP. ISGUM, with the financial assistance of the EU and numerous international experts, has developed 6 large mobile health units to conduct surveys and surveillance. With these units, in only a few years, they have screened over 2000 employees in various rural and other underserved areas of the country. They have developed a network of 6 regional support facilities, trained audiologists, laboratory technicians, ECG, and x-ray technicians, and other support staff for these mobile units. Among other things, their main goal is to improve worker health and serve as a model to survey and to deliver services to underserved regions. By comparison, mobile units in developed countries such as Canada have been developed mostly in response to employer demand for specialized screening services. Mobile units are a versatile mechanism for introducing flexibility and responsiveness to national occupational health systems.