Primary Health Care Information System for the Farmersʹ Health Surveillance and Epidemiologic Research

The agricultural work is associated with a series of adverse health effects. Health informatics could potentially contribute to the organization of health data; therefore, there is an imperative need for the development of an Electronic Health Record (EHR) regarding farmersʹ health. The current study describes the development of an Information System which shall gather and store information not only about farmersʹ health, but also about the level of exposure to hazardous substances, the extent of use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and the type of agricultural work. The model is based on a web application which is installed in Primary Healthcare Units and a Central Database Server connected to a Local Information System. This system produces statistical measures and health indicators from the raw dataset. Particularly, the Information System produces descriptive and advanced statistics, health indicators, time-series charts and geographical disease mapping referring to farmersʹ health, farmersʹ profile and farmersʹ occupational health and safety. The above components aim to support the process of Health Surveillance and Epidemiologic Research on Farmersʹ Health. A simulation questionnaire has been used as a methodological tool in order to set the appropriate fields that would finally be included into the Information System. The system was installed in two healthcare settings, and 314 sample datasets have been collected, using the web module of the Information System. A two-level schema was used for the evaluation of system usability, the contribution in regards to health surveillance-epidemiologic research and the internal validity of the output information.