The 5th International Conference on Work Environment and Cardiovascular Diseases,
which was organized in September 27-30, 2009 in Krakow. Fifth International Conference
on Work Environment and Cardiovascular Diseases was organized by Scientific Committee
of Cardiology in Occupational Medicine under International Commission on Occupational
Health (ICOH) and Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine (NIOM).
The topic of this conference - research and prevention in the field of work environment and
cardiovascular diseases (CVD) is a big challenge for researchers of the 21st century. The
conference was an excellent opportunity to exchange views and share the experience of
cardiologists, occupational physicians, cardiac rehabilitation specialists, sociologists,
psychologists and policy makers in occupational health. It was good occasion for
dissemination of the current knowledge about work-related diseases among partners of the
project.
The first meeting of partners was kick-off-meeting organized before conference in
Krakow on 26.09.2009. During this event all partners presented their own research activities
as well as achievements of universities and institutes which were represented. The project’s
leader explained the details of project and thereafter were discussed plans of implementation
and prepared scheme of partners exchange.
The next event was special workshop organized for all partners of our project entitled
“Heart Rate Variability and Job Stress Analysis: Discussing a New Platform for Largescale Work/CVD Studies”. This was a very good opportunity to meet famous specialists in
that field and to get acquainted with the new trends in heart rate variability analysis.
During visit NIOM researchers in St Petersburg (SPbSMA) the prospects of multilateral
cooperation were discussed and the research priorities identified. Main fields of the
cooperation were determined:
 research on environmental and occupational risk factors of the cardiovascular diseases
in Russia using the NIOM-developed model to enable comparison of the results
achieved in Poland and Russia.
 assessment of the effects of work environment on psychical and physical capability of
drivers under simulated and real road traffic conditions,
 methods for diagnosing and certifying the ability to drive road vehicles for: candidate
professional drivers, drivers returning to work after cardiac, neurological and other
incidents, periodical examination of drivers - comparison between Poland and Russia
During the stay in Saint Petersburg, a visit has been arranged at the NW Research
Center of Public Health.
Visit prof. Yermakova (ISTC) in the University of Gavle made clear that it is possible to
develop cooperative work between University and ISTC, which will be useful to study
influence of environmental and professional factors on workers in both countries especially in
Ukraine. The point of interest can be development of new mathematical approaches and
methods to analyze laboratory experiments in man. The first step is to study effect of physical
exercise on physiological systems especially cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems
during dynamic and steady – state processes.
Mathematical models and information
technologies would be effective tool for these tasks. The second point of joint work will be
development and application mathematical method to evaluate fatigue during physical
activity.
During visit Dr Eugene Lyskov (CBF, Sweden) in Department of Information
Technology in Medicine at ISTC (Kiev, Ukraine) two projects have been started. The aim
of the first one is an analysis of long-term heart rate variability records (Holter monitoring) in
patients with burn-out syndrome. The second line of joint work is focused on predictive
models of fatigue development base on artificial neuronal networks. Here, partners use real
data of laboratory experiments and re-analyse them by advanced methods developed at the
International Center for Information Technologies and Systems. The objective of this work
is to predict fatigue during physical activity using neural network model by building it from
the real time physiological measurements taken from patients.
Based on the results of stay the delegation of SPbSMA named after I.I. Mechnikov in
NIOM for teamwork under the REWARD project, plans for further activities were prepared:
1) Participation of representatives of SPbSMA named after I.I. Mechnikov in the XIV
Congress
of
the
International
Society
of
Holter
Monitoring
and
Noninvasive
Electrocardiology (ISHNE), Moscow, 25-28 April 2011.
2) Participation of prof. A.P. Makhnov in data collection from the patients who experienced
their first myocardial infarction and were hospitalized in the clinic of cardiology SPbSMA
within one (2011) year using special questionnaire. Questionnaire should be translated into
Russian and edited by Prof. A.P. Makhnov. Data analysis and comparison of the results
between Poland, and Russia will be performed with participation of the epidemiologists
participating in REWARD (dr Hynek Pikhart from University College of London).
3) Psychophysiological research of public transportation drivers (E. Belogurova – J.
Siedlecka) in St. Petersburg starting from 2011.