Australasian Faculty of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
The Australasian Faculty of Occupational & Environmental Medicine (AFOEM) is a Faculty of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) that connects and represents Occupational & Environmental Medicine Fellows and trainees in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
We're committed to establishing and maintaining a high standard of training and practice in Occupational and Environmental Medicine in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand through the training and continuing professional development of our members and advocating on their behalf to shape the future of healthcare.
AFOEM is governed by the AFOEM Council and committees. Find out more about AFOEM governance including the AFOEM Council and Committees.
AFOEM Purpose Statement
”The Australasian Faculty of Occupational & Environmental Medicine will be recognised medical specialists promoting the health and wellbeing of workers, healthy workplaces
and good work.”
About occupational and environmental medicine
Occupational and Environmental Physicians (OEPs) are medical specialists with expertise in all aspects of the interface between physical and psychological health and work. This includes prevention, injury management with an emphasis on return to work, and worker rehabilitation.
OEPs work in diverse settings as clinicians, consultants, managers, advisers or researchers, largely outside hospitals. They can be engaged as individuals or employed within corporate or physician-operated health services or tertiary education/research facilities. They can lead multidisciplinary occupational health and wellbeing teams that operate within employer organisations.
OEPs have a focus on professionalism, leadership, care, integrity, communication, respect, and advocacy, including a key role in the provision of strategic advice about workplace and environmental risks to government and regulators.
Environmental medicine is primarily concerned with the human health impacts of industrial practices on the broader environment outside of the industrial site.
Read the Scope of Practice (PDF) to understand the key responsibilities and expertise of Occupational and Environmental Physicians in promoting workplace health and safety.
Discover the history of occupational and environmental medicine.
What is an Occupational and Environmental Physician?
What does a career in Occupational and Environmental Medicine involve?
Are you looking for a consultant in occupational medicine?
You can find a consultant of the Australasian Faculty of Occupational Medicine with the expertise you need. Alternatively, explore ANZSOM (Australia) or ANZSOM (Aotearoa New Zealand) for an overview of members of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Occupational Medicine Inc. (ANZSOM).
Advanced Training in occupational and environmental medicine
AFOEM runs the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Advanced Training Program in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
Find out more about the Advanced Training program in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Advocacy
Health Benefits of Good Work®
Find out more about the Health Benefits of Good Work® initiative
It Pays to Care
A initiative to improve the health and recovery outcomes for people who experience a work injury, including reducing barriers to care. Find out more about why It Pays to Care.
Ferguson-Glass Oration
AFOEM's keynote address is called the Ferguson-Glass Oration. The Oration is named after Professor David Alexander Ferguson AM and Professor William Ivan Glass who are acknowledged as the two Founding Fathers of academic occupational medicine in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
Find out more about the Ferguson-Glass Oration
Get involved
You can get involved in the Faculty and connect with other AFOEM Fellows and trainees in a number of ways: