How does the team at OccIDEAS work with you?
We specialise in two types of study
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prevalence studies investigating occupational exposure to cancer risk factors at the population level, and
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case-control studies investigating the association between various occupational agents and cancer.
OccIDEAS has underpinned national prevalence studies on occupational exposure to cancer risk factors for the following countries: Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, and Spain.
OccIDEAS has underpinned case-control studies on occupational exposure to cancer risk factors for breast cancer, colorectal cancer and prostate cancer. It’s also used in the Australian Mesothelioma Registry which looks at occupational exposure to asbestos in mesothelioma patients.
If you would like to use OccIDEAS in your study, here are the steps involved.
Step 1. Design your study.
Determine sample size, sampling frame, recruitment approach and data collection method.
Step 2. Import the OccIDEAS Job questionnaires into your CATI system for your study interviewer team.
OccIDEAS has over 50 job questionnaires, such as farmer, cleaner and driver. These questionnaires ask about tasks done in that particular job, such as spraying pesticides, types of cleaning chemicals used, and vehicle fuel. They also ask about control measures such as ventilation and PPE.
Synchronisation tools (APIs) are used to transfer the questionnaires and keep the order and nesting of questions. APIs are currently available for Qualtrics, Voxco, IBM Dimensions and REDCap and others can be developed as required.
Step 3. Use our training material to train interviewers on how to allocate the right job module to each participant.
The aim is that each person is asked questions that specifically relate to their job (e.g. office worker, firefighter, farmer, teacher, cleaner, driver, etc).
Step 4. Run a pilot study and send the pilot study results to OccIDEAS for exposure assessment.
Using the API, you transfer the deidentified (but linkable) answers to questions to OccIDEAS.
Step 5. Exposure assessment is performed by OccIDEAS using our unique peer-reviewed assessment system.
OccIDEAS assesses each participant’s level of exposure to each of the study agents, based on their answers to the questions. It is a semiquantitative measure summarized as: none, low, medium, and high.
We return the data to you in analysable datasets with explanatory notes. We also provide suggestions for the main study if necessary.
Step 6. Collect data for the main study and send the participants’ questionnaire answers to OccIDEAS
Using the API, you transfer the deidentified (but linkable) answers to questions to OccIDEAS.
Step 7. OccIDEAS performs exposure assessment using our unique peer-reviewed assessment system.
We provide analysable datasets containing semiquantitative assessments of exposure for each participant with explanatory notes to help with the analysis.
OccIDEAS was recently used in a survey run by WorkSafe New Zealand. For their comprehensive report on the survey please see
https://www.worksafe.govt.nz/research/new-zealand-carcinogens-survey-2021/
In addition, the European Union Occupational Safety and Health Agency recently completed data collection from 24000 workers in 6 EU countries. For more information about the survey please see
https://osha.europa.eu/en/facts-and-figures/workers-exposure-survey-cancer-risk-factors-europe
Costings
OccIDEAS is made available for use on a fee-for-service basis. The costing model for using OccIDEAS is based on a once-off study setup fee, a yearly support and maintenance fee, and a price per exposure assessment.
Our once-off study setup fee is $2,500 to $4000 depending on complexity.
Our yearly support and maintenance fee is $1,000 - $3000 depending on complexity.
Our price per exposure assessments are shown in the table below.
Quantity
Price Per Assessment
1 to 99
100 to 999
1,000 or more
$10.00
$9.00
$7.00
All prices are shown in AUD (excluding GST)
We also offer world leading occupational epidemiological consulting and data science services priced on a case-by-case basis. Discounts can be provided for low-income countries.