Bridging Two Gaps: A Roadmap for Collaboration Between Occupational Physicians and General Practitioners

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Public Health Policy
• Healthcare Collaboration

Background:

• Occupational physicians (OPs) and general practitioners (GPs) have limited communication despite managing shared patient health aspects.
• Recent Italian legislation (Law 198/2025, Legislative Decree 135/2024, Legislative Decree 29/2024) establishes new links between occupational surveillance, public health, and aging workers.
• The increasing diversity of the workforce, including foreign-born workers with potential endemic conditions and language barriers, highlights the need for OP-GP coordination.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the opportunity for formal collaboration between OPs and GPs in Italy presented by recent legislative changes.
• To identify structural obstacles to OP-GP collaboration in Italy, drawing lessons from international experiences.
• To propose a roadmap for implementing effective OP-GP data exchange and integration.

Main Methods:

• Commentary and analysis of recent Italian legislation.
• Review of documented challenges from similar initiatives in the Netherlands, Germany, France, and Finland.
• Proposal of a three-tiered implementation roadmap.

Main Results:

• New Italian laws create a narrow but significant opportunity for structured data exchange between OPs and GPs.
• Coordination is essential for managing the health of diverse workforces and ensuring safe fitness-for-work assessments.
• International examples highlight common structural obstacles to interprofessional collaboration.

Conclusions:

• Formal collaboration between OPs and GPs is crucial for enhancing cancer screening and public health prevention in Italy.
• A phased implementation approach, starting with consensus-based models and progressing to EHR integration, is recommended.
• Addressing structural obstacles is key to realizing the potential of integrated occupational and public health data.