The ISSA European Network (IEN) will organize a Technical Seminar on the theme of "Innovative approaches to prevention of occupational diseases" from 27 to 28 May 2015 in Saint Petersburg, hosted by the Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation, with the support of the ISSA Technical Commission on Insurance against Employment Accidents and Occupational Diseases.

The Technical Seminar is aimed at CEOs, managers and experts in the area of occupational diseases, occupational health, accident prevention and other social security stakeholders from ISSA member organizations in the European region.

The main objective of this Technical Seminar is to give guidance to identify, analyze and review innovative and administrative approaches to the prevention of occupational diseases. It will also provide workers' compensation boards and work injury insurance schemes with good practices and national experiences to address occupational risks adequately by tackling the occupational health risks as early as possible, discussing the issue of (under-) reporting, as well as the updating of national occupational diseases lists.

The key issues of the programme include:

• What are the key trends in occupational diseases in the European region and what is the impact of these diseases?
• How can social security bodies and government agencies address the major administrative challenges regarding occupational diseases − the assessment of occupational diseases, the decision-making process and ensuring timely claims processing?
• Which methods are currently being applied to assess and address the causes of occupational diseases, as well as to facilitate the recognition process?
• What tools can the ISSA Centre for Excellence offer with regard to the prevention of occupational diseases? Discussions will be held on the proposed text on occupational diseases to be included in the ISSA Guidelines on Prevention of Occupational Risks and approaches for their further development will be analyzed.

The Technical Seminar is open to ISSA member organizations from the European region, and the working languages will be English and Russian.