Akbar Sharip, Paul J Papanek, Craig Conlon, Constantine J Gean, Alya Khan, Robert Harrison, Manijeh Berenji
{"title":"WOEMA Position Paper and Call-to-Action: California Needs More Physicians Specializing in Occupational and Environmental Medicine (OEM).","authors":"Akbar Sharip, Paul J Papanek, Craig Conlon, Constantine J Gean, Alya Khan, Robert Harrison, Manijeh Berenji","doi":"10.1097/JOM.0000000000003426","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>This paper describes the critical shortage of physicians trained in occupational and environmental medicine (OEM) in California, analyzes the adverse impacts of that shortage, and proposes a specific target for increasing OEM residency slots.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Literature review.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The US ratio of OEM physicians to workers is 2 per 100,000 workers, compared with a ratio of 4 to 40 per 100,000 workers in most industrialized nations. California's shortage OEM physicians costs the state's employers over $1 billion annually in needless workers' compensation losses and other health impacts. Graduating 40 additional OEM residents in the state annually would cost an extra $27 to 32 million per year.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The return-on-investment from increasing the number of OEM residencies and residency slots in California would be substantial, approaching at least 10-to-1, benefitting the state's workers and employers, and its environmental quality.</p>","PeriodicalId":94100,"journal":{"name":"Journal of occupational and environmental medicine","volume":" ","pages":"705-710"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4000,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of occupational and environmental medicine","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1097/JOM.0000000000003426","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/4/18 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Objective: This paper describes the critical shortage of physicians trained in occupational and environmental medicine (OEM) in California, analyzes the adverse impacts of that shortage, and proposes a specific target for increasing OEM residency slots.
Methods: Literature review.
Results: The US ratio of OEM physicians to workers is 2 per 100,000 workers, compared with a ratio of 4 to 40 per 100,000 workers in most industrialized nations. California's shortage OEM physicians costs the state's employers over $1 billion annually in needless workers' compensation losses and other health impacts. Graduating 40 additional OEM residents in the state annually would cost an extra $27 to 32 million per year.
Conclusions: The return-on-investment from increasing the number of OEM residencies and residency slots in California would be substantial, approaching at least 10-to-1, benefitting the state's workers and employers, and its environmental quality.
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