Estimation of Demand and Supply for Occupational and Environmental Medicine Specialties in Korea (II): Demand Estimation and Demand-Supply Balance / 대한산업의학회지

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: To estimate the demand and demand-supply balances of occupational and environmental medical specialties (OEMS) in the target year of 2020. METHODS: We adopted a new OEMS demand model based on the situations of periodic workers' health examination (PHE) agencies, health management agencies (HMA), and legal enforcement for health and safety systems in Korea. The model uses data selected primarily from the database of the Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (KSOEM), a survey for certified members of KSOEM, statistics and internal documents from the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL). RESULTS: From the data and assumptions, newly demanded OEMS were 193 for workers who had received PHE, and 205 based on total workers for PHE in 2020 for PHE. But no OEMS for HMA area is demanded. Comparing with the calculated numbers of supply estimates, the demand was slightly higher, but could be balanced if MOEL kept consistent and unchanging policies. CONCLUSIONS: The study results suggest that the demand-supply balance of OEMS is mainly influenced by the policy of MOEL. Further studies are needed examining more detailed data and statistics about PHE agencies, HMA and considering MOEL policies are needed to configuring more sophisticated and need-included estimation.