[Optimal care of patients with occupational hand dermatitis: considerations of German occupational health insurance]

Abstract

Occupational dermatoses (OD) have been at the top of all occupational diseases in Germany for years (>25% of all occupational diseases officially reported annually to the public statutory employers' liability insurance bodies). More than 90% of OD-cases are hand eczema. Several pilot initiatives to improve prevention of occupational skin diseases have been developed and funded since 2005 by the statutory employers' liability insurance schemes. The concept underpinning these initiatives is a nationwide multi-step intervention approach recently implemented by the public statutory insurance system administration ("step- wise procedure") which aims at offering quick and specific preventive help at all levels of severity of OD. The dermatologist has a pivotal function in this concept; for early secondary prevention, the so-called dermatologist's procedure was recently updated in order to provide more rapid and concise dermatological consultations and care. Additionally, combined outpatient dermatological and educational intervention seminars ("secondary individual prevention", SIP) and interdisciplinary inpatient prevention measures have been developed ("tertiary individual prevention", [TIP]) and are currently being further evaluated in multicenter studies.