Illness and Injury Surveillance

The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) examines and analyzes the occupational health records of more than 125,000 current workers at 14 participating U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sites and facilities as part of the Illness and Injury Surveillance Program (IISP). These analyses allow DOE to assess the health of its workforce and identify groups that may be at increased risk of illness or injury.

Occupational medicine departments across the DOE complex routinely collect illness and injury data. Surveillance is based on continuous collection, analysis and interpretation of selected morbidity, demographic and occupational exposure data.

ORISE serves as the data center for IISP and in this capacity:

• Receives data submissions from illness and injury surveillance (IIS) sites and provides data management and quality assurance on the data received
• Applies nosologic coding to absence and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) data received from the sites
• Provides assistance to IIS sites regarding data preparation and interpretation of submission guidelines
• Organizes and conducts workshops for site data coordinators

ORISE also provides scientific and technical assistance and performs specialized analyses in support of IISP, including:

• Constructing and analyzing data files to produce IIS reports
• Providing scientific and technical assistance in developing new analyses for inclusion in the IIS reports

DOE publishes IIS analyses in publicly available reports. Annual surveillance reports for each participating facility can also be accessed via the Illness and Injury Surveillance Program website.