Textbook of Maritime Medicine

Maritime medicine is not a well established, nor a well defined discipline within the medical world. There is no speciality in the field, and the establishment of academic degrees has just started. Tentatively, a definition of maritime medicine could be “any medical activity related to questions concerning the employment, working conditions, living conditions, health and safety of workers at sea” This would include workers in the commercial fleet, the navy, the fishing fleet, sea piloting, offshore installations, and leisure boats.

 For the development of a scientific discipline, learning material is indispensable. Except for a valuable publication within ship medicine, no comprehensive textbook has been available in the field of maritime medicine. It was this fact that prompted us to start working with the present product. It was important to us that the material should be available to everybody, anywhere, at any time, and free of charge. Because a printed version would not be able to meet theses criteria, we decided to go for a web based solution.

 The advantages of an internet solution are evident: The product will be interactive and dynamic. Corrections and additions can be made at any time. Referencing with direct linking makes source searching easy. The inclusion of a discussion forum and a social network represents an attraction. The technical solution makes the product readable regardless of screen resolutions.

 It is unavoidable that a novel product like the present will have some teething troubles and some experimental features. Because the product is dynamic and subject to continuous revision, we have granted ourselves the liberty to publish at a time when only the majority of chapters were completed. The chapters not completed at the time of first publication appear with their titles only. The interactive capabilities of the product will allow experts in the field to contribute with corrections, improvements and additions. However, we expect that at the end of the first quarter of 2010 the “textbook” will be complete with all chapters reviewed, accepted and published. It is our genuine hope that the “Textbook of Maritime Medicine” will be instrumental in defining and developing the discipline of maritime medicine, and that it will serve as comprehensive learning material for students, and as a reference tool for practitioners. We extend our sincere gratitude to everyone who has contributed to this product without any kind of compensation, and in particular to the editorial board. Without their enthusiastic cooperation and encouragement, the product would not have materialized.