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Updated: Aug 5, 2026

Methodology for Establishing a Community-Wide Life Laboratory for Capturing Unobtrusive and Continuous Remote Activity and Health Data
Published on: July 27, 2018
The positive known association design: a quality assurance method for occupational health surveillance data
G W Olsen1, G D Kusch, B A Stafford
1Dow Chemical Company, Health and Environmental Sciences, Midland, MI 48674.
Abstract:
Quality control must be an integral component of an occupational health surveillance program. The positive known association design offers the occupational health physician a method to test, on a population basis (ie, high periodic medical surveillance examination participation rates by the employees), the quality of periodic medical surveillance data. Several well-established biological associations were evaluated and observed in this study, including a dramatic relation between white blood cell counts and smoking. We highly recommend that the positive known association design be incorporated in the quality assurance procedures of occupational health surveillance programs.
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