Defining Medical Surveillance
Medical surveillance is a prevention strategy that is used to ensure that workers are safe and healthy. It is the review of health data from an individual or group of employees over time. The intent of medical surveillance is to detect and remove health hazards from the work environment before any injury can occur.
Our Mission
The UC Davis Medical Surveillance Program delivers comprehensive medical screening services in a focused and effective manner in order to increase the health, safety and well-being of California workers. We are committed to providing the most expert and meticulous patient care possible while striving to be responsive and adaptive to the needs of our clients. We value integrity and seek to balance in-depth medical screening with judicious use of resources.
Our History
The concept of a mobile clinic that provided occupational health services came about in the early 1980s. At the time, the founding director of the UC Davis Center for Occupational & Environmental Health, Dr. Marc Schenker, noticed a lack of occupational medicine providers in California’s rural areas. Dr. Schenker was particularly concerned about how this impacted agricultural workers. Dr. Schenker responded by creating the UC Davis Medical Surveillance Program, staffed with our own mobile clinic, with a commitment to deliver high-quality medical care to workers throughout California.
Occupational medicine has evolved over the past four decades, and our clinical services have expanded to meet the growing needs of our clients. We continue to provide essential medical surveillance for respirator use and industrial exposures, and also offer screening for commercial drivers, narcotics agents, outdoor workers, and professional divers. Our team is well-versed in current scientific and regulatory information from federal and Cal-OSHA, NIOSH, and the California Department of Public Health. We are NIOSH-certified in spirometry and CAOHC-certified in audiometry. With our decades of experience providing medical monitoring of workers, we continue to provide the highest level of care for California employees.