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About Us

A. Historical Perspective

The Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (OEM) was established in 1960. It was founded in response to the industrial renaissance at this era that resulted in increased number of employees at the industrial sector and hence increased responsibility for providing specialized healthcare to these worker.
The department was first established as a unit branching from the Department of Internal Medicine. In 1964,  the department became the first and, till now, the only independent OEM department in Egypt. The department depended first on its outpatient clinic but, later on, an inpatient department (1990) and several attached units were established.

B. Sub-Departments, Units and Provided Services

1. Inpatient Department:
This department lies at Maniel Kebly Hospital. The department is directly guided by the OEM department faculty staff members who supervise the work of 5 residents, assigned house officers (interns), 6 Nurses and 5 service workers. The department has a 15 inpatient bed capacity and provide several services including:
  • Managing patients with occupational and environmental diseases. This includes conducting full medical examination, performing necessary medical investigations, prescribing necessary treatment strategies and estimating degree of permanent impairment and disability, if any. 
  • Discharged cases are periodically followed-up using a follow-up card in the outpatient clinic.
  • Conducting several fitness-for-task, periodic and other regulatory medical examinations for  Kasr Alainy employees.

2. Outpatient Clinic: On a bi-weekly basis, the OEM staff members attend the clinic to provide management of cases of occupational diseases referred from several workplaces. The clinic also manages cases with environmental diseases resultant from environmental pollution with lead, copper, manganese, cadmium, carbon monoxide ....... etc.

3. Faculty Staff Department: 
  • The department lies on the Faculty premises and includes offices for OEM staff members, Lecture rooms and theater and a clinical and Environmental laboratories (equipped with the latest Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry technology, Dust collector, physical hazards (e.g. heat, noise, ionizing radiation) monitoring equipment). 
  • The department provides several reputed and most trusted postgraduate educational programs in Egypt and Arab Countries. These include a M.SC.of Occupational and Environmental medicine,  M.D. of Occupational and Environmental medicine, M.D. of  Clinical and Environmental Toxicology and M.D.of Industrial Health Management programs.
  • Staff members are committed to conduct a well designed and innovative research in the field of OEM.
  • Other than the faculty's educational programs, the OEM Department also provides several training courses including:
- Training courses for physicians in the field of OEM: these aim at raising the awareness of medical staff dealing with workers at different industries on adequate preventive measures, early detection and management of occupational diseases.
 - Training courses for workers: These aim at raising the awareness of interested professionals on different hazardous exposures that they may encounter at their workplaces and methods of prevention and personal protection.
- Specialized training courses in occupational health and safety provided by internationally-authorized OEM staff trainers.
  • Other unique and specialized services provided by the department include:
- Organizing Field visit to industrial facilities and workplaces for preliminary evaluation and  risk assessment for different occupational exposures.
- Providing occupational medical services including pre-employment, periodic and other regulatory medical examinations.
- Analysis of heavy metals (e.g. lead, zinc, copper, nickel, chromium, cadmium, Aluminum, etc) in biological fluids (e.g. blood, urine, saliva, etc.)  using the Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometr.
- Collection and analysis of environmental samples (air - water - soil) using the Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometr.

4. Units of special nature related to the department
There are several units of special nature that have emerged from the department. These include:
  • National Center for Clinical toxicology (NECTR)
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  • Fitness and Rehabilitation Unit (FRU)
The unit was established in 1990 to provide the following services:
  • Assessment of Cardio-pulmonary functions and degree of fitness via conducting the following tests:
- Regular (spirometry) and advanced ventilatory functions tests,
- Airway resistance (Raw), Conductance (Gaw), Maximal Inspiratory Pressure (MIP) and Maximal Expiratory Pressure (MEP) tests.
- Bronchoprovocation test,
- Gas (CO) diffusion capacity test,
- Cardio-Pulmonary Exercise (CPX) Stress Test,
- Measurement of arterial blood gases.
  • Determine the degree of physical fitness in athletes.
  • Provide consultation on the degree of permanent impairment, disability and need for rehabilitation.
  • Rehabilitation of Cardio-Pulmonary diseases and impairment.
  • Unit for safe disposal of hazardous waste
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