Textbook of Maritime Medicine

Introduction

Notwithstanding the significant observations and new discoveries that has previously taken place in the field of maritime medicine, research in maritime medicine is rather new. As an example of early valuable observations that have benefitted seafarers for decennials, James Lind, in the mid eighteen century, discovered that the risk of malaria could be reduced to zero by anchoring the vessel a few nautical miles away from the shore. The same author conducted a clinical controlled study on scorbut documenting the preventive effect of lemon juice. These observations could be made in the absence of knowledge of the parasite, the transmitting vector, and vitamin C. Nevertheless, they led to preventive control. At that time, the control measures were limited to vessels under his influence (the British navy), while until several decades later the global naval and civil fleet remained ignorant to the prevention of these serious threats to seamen.

Today, we would still like to find and implement solutions to imminent threats. We would, however, also aim to understand their character and their mode of action. We would also like to comprehend why a certain intervention is effective and whether and why it may be better than an alternative intervention. Most importantly, we would like to see an impact of our endeavors on the health and safety of seafarers.

These ambitions require that our observations are carefully described and made accessible to a large scientific public as well as decision makers in the maritime trades. These key persons should scrutinize and criticize the outcome of research, which may eventually be modified according to further experiences. Hopefully, the ultimate result would be a new and better practice that can be adopted by seafarers. Therefore we need to meet other researchers, to present and discuss our achievements in scientific fora, and to publish our research results in media accessed by colleagues that share the same maritime interests and challenges as ourselves. These communications and discussions always contain an element in mind of further improvement. Most importantly, the outcome of research should be presented to the end users in the maritime environments and applied according to their needs and perceptions.

This chapter should not be regarded as a manual for research in maritime medicine. It is rather intended to serve as an inspiration to colleagues who read scientific literature in the field and wish to eventually conduct or participate in maritime health and safety research.