Textbook of Maritime Medicine

The International Maritime Health Association (IMHA) is the sole international association concerned exclusively with Maritime Health.

It is not a UN agency, like IMO, ILO or WHO, but closely cooperating with them on the matters of maritime health.  At the moment those relations are formalized with IMO where IMHA officially have Consultancy status. Official status with other UN agencies is expected to be formalised soon.

IMHA is an association of professionals from a wide range of disciplines with the common commitment of improving the health of seafarers by developing better approaches to health protection, health promotion and health treatment.

IMHA members undertake research to investigate the importance of different risks and the effectiveness of the interventions used to prevent or treat seafarer health problems. Research results are used to improve maritime health practice.

IMHA was founded in Oslo in 1997, in connection with the 4^th International Symposium on Maritime Health (ISMH4).

Although a small members association, IMHA has achieved a position towards WHO, ILO and IMO as the most important advisor on maritime health issues, and has developed good relations to both International Transport Workers’ Federation and International Shipping Federation.

4.5.1  International Symposia on Maritime Health (ISMH)

Up to this 4^th International Symposium on Maritime Health  the ISMH was organized by national committees, and with cooperation between interested professional environments in different countries. From the 5^th ISMH, these symposia have been organized under the IMHA umbrella, although technical organization has been the responsibility of the national parties arranging the conference, after IMHAs decision.

 Table 4.5.1: List of the different international symposia on maritime health

These symposia have become an important arena for meeting professionals within the field of maritime health, presenting research, participating in workshops, promoting development and cooperation for the whole world.

A list of the different ISMHs and their chairs is shown in Table 4. In 2009 the 10^th ISMH was held in Goa, India. In 2011, the 11^th ISMH will be held in Odessa, Ukraine.

4.5.2   IMHA Working concept

International cooperation is extremely important to IMHA. Being the sole international association concerned exclusively with Maritime Health, the organization is working closely with WHO, ILO, IMO and the national organizations and centres within maritime health.

IMHA works together with IMO on new guidelines for conducting pre-sea and periodic medical examinations for seafarers (2009), an issue which is actualized as the STCW Convention is undergoing revision at present. But this issue is also of importance to ILO and WHO, as well as the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) and different national authorities. A IMHA work group has been working on this concept several years.

IMHA workgroups had produced some important documents on health issues used by the maritime industry: Guidance to the International Medical Guide for Ships 3rd edition: Interim advice regarding the best use of the medical chest for ocean-going merchant vessels without a doctor onboard and advice on influenza pandemic procedures on board: Influenza A (H1N1) Interim Advice for Maritime Industry.

Another work group will be established by 2009, concerning the different aspects of ship medicine, first and foremost the ship medicine chest. This work will have WHO as the most important UN agency partner.

IMHA also participated considerably in the production of the latest edition of International Medical Guide for Ships (IMGS), published by WHO in 2008.

A newsletter is published periodically from the IMHA office in Antwerp, and from 2009, there is a near cooperation between three parties in the publishing of the scientific publication International Maritime Health, namely the owner, Interfaculty Institute of Maritime and Tropical Medicine (IIMTM), Gdynia, IMHA and the Norwegian Centre for Maritime Medicine (NCMM), Bergen.

[1] http://www.imha.net