Today’s working world is shaped by a steadily growing number of new technologies being integrated into everyday work, such as Industry 4.0, artificial intelligence, and robotics. Employees are increasingly confronted with new tools, procedures, and substances. Current buzzwords in this context include: nanomaterials, CMR substances (carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic), endocrine disruptors, and revised classifications of both new and conventional chemicals, such as skin-absorbent substances.
To support both employers and employees in dealing with these technologies, procedures, and substances, and to protect them from potential adverse effects, sound knowledge and well-documented data are essential. This makes research in the field of prevention indispensable, enabling hazards and risks to be identified early and effective occupational safety measures to be implemented.
The Ludwig Boltzmann Institute (LBI) for Traumatology, the research center in cooperation with AUVA, has substantial expertise in areas of high relevance to prevention. The newly established research group SHIELD, led by Dr. Peter Dungel and originating from the former Photobiomodulation and Photodynamics group, is responsible for this line of work.
In close collaboration between AUVA and the SHIELD group, several successful research projects have already been carried out. These have resulted in publications in scientific journals, AUVA’s own media, and conference presentations. One poster presentation was even awarded a poster prize at a scientific conference.
For AUVA, prevention research provides clear and diverse added value:
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It helps avoid rising healthcare costs
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It makes preventive measures more efficient and cost-effective
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It improves patient care in secondary and tertiary prevention through new treatment approaches
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It allows both the long-term strategy and immediate measures in prevention to be adapted through in-house research
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AUVA takes on a pioneering role in prevention, both nationally and internationally
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It fosters international exchange through joint research projects
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It enables training and qualification of AUVA employees
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It promotes interdisciplinary approaches within research projects
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It reflects gender equity, with a particularly high proportion of women involved on both the AUVA and LBI sides
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AUVA fulfills its legal mandate to conduct research, including in the area of prevention
Structured investments in preventive research lead to a continuous increase in AUVA’s expertise. In turn, this results in fewer occupational accidents, work-related illnesses, and occupational diseases, while also improving employees’ long-term ability to work, which ultimately contributes to the success of Austrian businesses.
