Several research institutions for maritime medicine have been established worldwide. Some institutions have extended their scope to also include hyperbaric medicine, tropical medicine, aviation medicine, port health, or transport medical issues as a whole. Others keep a more narrow scope limited to cater for maritime health and safety in the merchant fleet, fisheries and offshore oil and gas exploitation.

 Services such as Radio Medical, training of seafarers in treatment on board, certification, health examinations, or medical treatment may be provided by these research institutions, or their activities may be limited to research. Table 4 provides an overview of some of the research institutes dealing with maritime medicine.

 In order to use the limited available resources in a rational way and not least because maritime medicine addresses globalized industries, international and interdisciplinary research collaboration is desirable and needed. Such collaboration widens the scope for researchers, permits learning from disciplines other than one’s own, while researchers in developing countries may get inspiration for improvements from colleagues in more developed and wealthier countries. Examples of international collaboration include studies of accidents ¹⁷.

Table 4. Examples of research institutions of maritime medicine