About WOEMA

Our Mission: The mission of the Western Occupational and Environmental Medical Association (WOEMA), and of the Western Occupational Health Conference (WOHC), is to equitably promote and protect the health, safety, and well-being of all individuals at work and in their environment through education, engagement, leadership and advocacy. WOEMA advocates for health equity through justice, diversity and inclusion.

The Benefits of Membership

The American College of Occupational & Environmental Medicine and its component society, the Western Occupational & Environmental Medicine Association, are dedicated to maintaining the highest standards of care in occupational and environmental medicine through Education, Service and Leadership. Your membership will enhance the stature and recognition of the specialty and strengthen the voice of OEM in health policy debates while promoting new levels of competency in the prevention and treatment of illness, injury, and disability in the work environment and community.

ACOEM/WOEMA members enjoy numerous practical benefits:

  • MAINTAINING CERTIFICATION
  • PROFESSIONAL CONNECTIONS
  • CAREER OPPORTUNITIES
  • PRESTIGE
  • PROFESSIONAL DISCOUNTS
  • ACTION FOR CHANGE
  • FUN!
Learn More

History of WOEMA

Physicians and Surgeons

By Christopher Leggo, C.M., M.D.
The Father, Founder and First Secretary
Crockett, California

This account of the early history of the Western Industrial Medical Association is written as a personal document for those who may be interested and is not phrased for publication. Being informal, it may reveal personal events which would not be of interest to general readers, nor might the presentation of the material to them be in good taste. If it is filed away in the archives of the Association, some future scribe may draw on it for material, or some currently ambitious author may find as great judgment required in what he deletes as in what he includes.

It is inevitable that since I took the initiative in organizing the Association, there will be an egotistical flavor to this account. There will be either frank or implied claims of good foresight. There will be carefully rationed references to some blind spots in judgment.

Read More
 

WOEMA Podcasts

For more details about each podcast, select the podcast title so it appears at the top of the player. Place your cursor anywhere in the podcast box and you will see an info button appear towards the right. Click on the button for speaker bio, related links, and a description (where applicable). Don't miss an episode! Be sure to subscribe to the WOEMA Podcast Series Channel.

You can support the podcasts by "Buying a Coffee" below.
WOEMA Podcasts

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Heart of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

Stephanie Stephens
Originally Published on Health eCAREERS
December 08, 2022 • 8 min read

Across the healthcare industry, an acknowledged overdue emphasis has been placed on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

From the origin of this specialty, occupational and environmental medicine (OEM) has championed diverse and underrepresented (URM) workers’ illnesses and injuries, says Robert Goldberg, MD, FACOEM, of San Francisco.

“Immigrants have often done the most dangerous work, with the highest exposures, going back 130 years,” says Goldberg. “Other medical specialties are in some ways disparate newcomers to this, but we have always recognized that people of diverse backgrounds don’t appear in clinical studies as often and have poorer outcomes when they respond differently to treatments, medications, and the lack of diversity within the ranks of physicians in general.”

Goldberg, an occupational medicine specialist and consultant, is past president of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) as well as of the Western Occupational and Environmental Medical Association (WOEMA), where he’s a member of the Justice, Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Committee. The organization’s member states are California, Nevada, Hawaii, Utah, and Arizona.
Read More