Surveillance of Australian Workplace Based Respiratory Events

The SABRE Project in New South Wales

Introduction

The SABRE project is a voluntary, anonymous notification scheme of occupational lung diseases that has been operating in Victoria since 1997 and was launched in NSW in June 2001. Doctors participating in the scheme include thoracic physicians, occupational physicians and WorkCover accredited general practitioners with a special interest in occupational medicine.

The SABRE project is supported by the Dust Diseases Board (DDB) in NSW. The operation of this project, i.e. physician recruitment and correspondence, and the collection and analyses of confidential patient information, is conducted by researchers in the Dust Diseases Board Research and Education Unit.

Ethics approval for the SABRE scheme was granted by the South Eastern Sydney Area Health Service Human Research Ethics Committee - Northern Section (Approval 07/149).