News

The International ORP Foundation, a new official campaign partner of the Healthy Workplaces Campaign 2023-25 'Safe and healthy work in the digital age', recently hosted a webinar titled 'Digitalisation and wellbeing: a new era for prevention'.

The online event, held on 15 February, targeted ORP's collaborating companies and featured presentations from various experts in occupational safety and health (OSH). Notably, Maurizio Curtarelli, an EU-OSHA expert, delivered insights into the new campaign, sharing different facts and figures as well as shedding light on the priority topics encompassing associated opportunities, challenges, and risks.

Highlighting the profound impact of digitalisation on health and wellbeing, the webinar underscored the transformative force that technology wields in contemporary society. The integration of digital tools in preventive practices signifies a significant step towards enhancing the quality of life and fostering proactive health measures.

From digital health platforms to smart devices and mobile apps, the new technological tools empower workers to actively engage in their wellbeing by facilitating real-time monitoring of health parameters and personalised health data management. Moreover, (AI) AI refers to systems that display intelligent behaviour by analysing their environment and taking actions – with some degree of autonomy – to achieve specific goals. AI-based systems can be purely software-based, acting in the virtual world (e.g. voice assistants, image analysis software, search engines, speech and face recognition systems) or AI can be embedded in hardware devices (e.g. advanced robots, autonomous cars, drones or Internet of things applications). and A process of extracting insights and knowledge from data using statistical or other techniques and tools. emerged as pivotal elements, enabling the analysis of extensive datasets to identify patterns and risk factors, thereby facilitating personalised preventive strategies. Telemedicine, another cornerstone of the digitalisation wave, has the potential to improve accessibility to healthcare services, particularly through remote consultations that optimise time and resources.

However, amidst the opportunities presented by digitalisation, challenges such as data security and equitable access to technology are observed. Addressing these issues is crucial to ensuring that the benefits of digitalisation in the prevention of diseases, arising from certain workplace environments, are universally accessible.

The full webinar can be watched on the ORP’s website.