A Pioneer in Occupational Medicine and Safety: P. J. Imperato, M.D. (1894-1969)

Occupational medicine and safety are now very well-established specialties world-wide. They bring together the essentials of clinical medicine and public health. However, the adoption of the principles of occupational medicine and safety was a long process in which both indifference and opposition had to be overcome. A leading pioneer in these fields, P.J. Imperato, MD, launched remarkable initiatives in the workplace some seventy years ago. He did so in the fields of heavy and marine construction. He first entered the field of occupational medicine in the late 1930's when he served as the physician for the Sullivan Drydock and Repair Corporation, a ship yard in Brooklyn, New York. Some ten years later he was appointed Director of the Medical and Safety Department of the Merritt-Chapman and Scott Corporation (MC&S). His comprehensive initiatives led to measurable positive outcomes through a process of formative assessment. These assessments focused on injuries and deaths. As a result of the initiatives he implemented in a high-risk heavy construction industry, injuries and deaths statistically declined leading to savings in workers' compensation and liability insurance payments. Imperato achieved all of this in the context of the high-risk construction of bridges, dams, tunnels, and housing developments by one of the leading construction companies in the United States.