Abstract

June 20, 1923, in Moscow was founded the world’s oldest scientific institute of OD. It was organised as a scientific and clinical institution for the study of OD in close connexion with the hygienic methods of analysing and evaluating working conditions.

From the first days the institute continues to actively develop the preventive direction of domestic medicine, being the scientific and methodological centre of the country for a comprehensive study of the impact of occupational workers` health factors and the development of scientifically based measures to prevent their adverse effects.

The development of theoretical foundations for establishing general patterns and mechanisms of the influence of factors of the production, non-productive environment and the labour process on the workers` health was actively pursued with the aim of justifying effective methods for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of OD; studying medical and social problems of the health status and dynamics of workers in connexion with demographic shifts, changing production conditions, the environment and migration processes; Improvement and development of new preventive technologies that ensure the preservation of workers’ health; Including the safety of nanomaterials and nanotechnologies; development of principles and methods for using the data of socio-hygienic and epidemiological studies of production contingents in the system of insurance medicine, depending on the state of working conditions and their consequences (morbidity, mortality, disability, etc.); development of scientifically based approaches to the assessment and management of occupational risk, taking into account modern concepts.

It is enough to name Ivan Razenkov, Nikolai Pravdin, Zinoviy Smelyansky, Lev Khotsyanov, August Letavet, Igor Sanotsky, German Suvorov, Elena Vorontsova, Angelina Guskova, Nikolai Izmerov to understand the level of the scientific potential of the institution.In 1975 the Institute became the WHO Collaborating Centre of OH, and in 1992 held the first meeting of the WHO CC of OH.