Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine the organizational structure for preventing work-related musculoskeletal disorders in industrialized countries, for serving as a reference for our organization. In general, the basic structure of the organization consists of three functional entities: governmental agency for law making and enforcement；research organizations for providing technical support for the governmental agency in policy making；Civilian groups for practicing training education and in-site consultation。On top of these three entities, there is an advisory committee which is formed by representatives from the sectors of workers, employers, government, and general public, in charging of policy review and enforcement scrutiny. To date, the pilot organization in Taiwan is assembled from a control office, a call center and 3 service platforms。The control office is administered by the Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH)；the call center accepts call-ins and effects call-outs for industry and conveys services requests between 3 service platforms, which is the core of this organization. The 3 service platforms are Human factors for ergonomics improvement, Industrial Hygiene for safety and health, and Occupational Medicine for disease diagnosis and treatment. This organization is not complete for the fact that ILOSH is not really a law enforcement agency.This study examines the organizational structure of U.S. Canada and Europe Union, and analyzes their functional segmentation and operational methods. Based on the comparison of completeness of the organization and rational of operational method, it is suggested that the organization of the Ontario of Canada is indeed the most suitable organization for us in terms of the size of population and territory. Now, the Act for Preventing Repetitive Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders (OSHA Act 6.2.1) has been effected. Accordingly, OSHA is the legal enforcement agency responsible for law making and enforcement. ILOSH is the leading research organization for supporting policy making. Civilian groups serve as task force for implementing the policy, and it is also suggested that the task force is better segmented into 4 expertise divisions, one for governmental agencies and military services, one for public infrastructure construction, one for transportation services, and one for civilian industry. And also, an advisory committee in charging of policy review and law enforcement scrutiny. It is hoped that this could serve as prototype organization for preventing of repetitive work-related musculoskeletal disorders in Taiwan. Keywords: musculoskeletal disorder, WMSD, WMSD prevention system, WMSD prevention promotion