Development of the new OMEGA-Hazardous Substances software for the collection and processing of exposure data on hazardous substances at the MGU

Status:

completed 05/2025

Aims:

Development of a new organisational system for collecting and exploiting measured data on hazard exposure at the workplace (OMEGA). OMEGA, a digital hazardous substances procedure, has now been in use for almost 40 years, during which time it has undergone continual further development at the IFA.

Further developments in content, in the structure of data collection and the indexes of codes, technological progress, and the resulting growing requirements of users have given rise to a need for OMEGA’s architecture and technological underpinnings to be redesigned, in order for the new requirements to be met as effectively as possible. This in turn calls for far-reaching conceptual solutions in the software’s architecture. Expansion of data collection and technical adjustments to it concern the nature and structure of the data. Furthermore, changes are to be made in the scope and content of the exposure data to be collected. Numerous rules are implemented in the legacy system. In the new system, management of these rules is to be configurable, in order to reduce the internal resource overhead in the medium and long term. Furthermore, facility for the application’s modification, extension, maintenance, installation and operation will be optimised to create a sustainable and forward-thinking IT solution and to reduce the costs currently incurred by these activities. This also involves bringing legacy processes for IT development of the MGU (measurement system for exposure assessment) into line with new IT standards, and simplifying the existing processes for the delivery of software and indexes of codes.

Project benefits:
The objective of the new design is to ensure that by the use of new indexes of codes (for sector, operation, area of activity, task, work equipment/production plant, occupation), exposure data of higher quality is to be made available to the MEGA process (measurement data on exposure to hazardous substances in the workplace), in order to support investigations into cases of occupational diseases and the planning and implementation of prevention strategies, and to make the data available for epidemiological studies.

In addition, the handling of data in procedures is to be made more efficient, both in the metrological services and at the IFA. The measurement reports and the exposure data stored in the OMEGA system must be consistent, their readability must be improved, and they must be made available more swiftly to labour inspectors and companies.

The OMEGA hazardous substances software will provide functionality for both online and offline work. It will enable users to work on a range of terminal devices (e.g. laptops and tablets), produce and deliver measurement reports without the need for additional software, and provide access to documents relevant to work.

A key aspect is that the software will offer multi-client capability. This includes secure central storage and backup, on a DGUV server, of all exposure data and reports that are entered and are required to be documented, and dedicated access to the content for each of the German Social Accident Insurance Institutions, with consideration for pseudonymisation.

Activities/Methods:

Data collection has been optimised in its structure and scope, and greater flexibility has been provided for management of the data collection workflow. The ergonomics of the collection and processing of data by users, particularly authorised employees, has been improved, as has the support. Measurement methods, underlying regulatory rules and the data to be collected are subject to change. The system enables new and modified methods to be supported to the greatest possible extent by means of configuration functionality. The existing mechanisms for the delivery of software updates have been simplified and automated. A sustainable and forward-thinking IT solution has been created.

The software’s architecture is that of a modern web application and comprises the following components:

• Front end based on the Angular Framework
• Back end based on the Spring Framework
• Oracle database
• OAuth 2.0 authentication provider

A JSON-based REST interface serves as the interface for communication between the front end and back end. JSON or XML is to be used for communication with existing components. A four-layer architecture approach has been adopted. Each of these layers has specific tasks. In the interests of a clean structure, components of a higher layer may use only components of the same layer or the layer directly beneath it.

The following layers are defined:

1. Client: User interface of the system, i.e. front-end dialogs. This includes the periphery, where present, such as assistants or other fat clients, or smartphone clients.
2. Service: Makes the system’s functionality visible externally to clients, batch processes and neighbouring systems. This acts as a façade; core transactions and errors are normally to be handled in this layer.
3. Business logic: Implements the use cases defined in the specification.
4. Data access: Read and write operations on the database data are encapsulated (persistence) on this layer. Technical cross-sectional server components cannot be assigned solely to any one of these layers, and are always available in the three layers of service, logic and data access.
5. The software was subjected to several rounds of intensive testing in accordance with industry methods and standards. Testing during the respective development cycles was performed by qualified internal project personnel and by application domain experts.

Resource requirements:
The IFA and ITD departments within the DGUV each allocated resources to the project for the project term.

The following resource requirements arose over the duration of the project, which lasted three years in total:

IFA: 20,300 hours

ITD: 8,000 hours

A total of approximately 500 working hours was anticipated for IFA departments A2 and A3 over the course of the project for discussions relating to the identification of requirements, clarification of technical content and participation in application tests on a case-by-case basis.

Results:

OMEGAone is a multi-client, centralised IT system for the collection, documentation and utilisation of measurement data relating to exposure to hazardous substances. The system creates a digital representation of the workflow within the hazard assessment system of the German Social Accident Insurance Institutions. It supports the personnel involved in the metrological services and at the IFA in the structured completion of procedures, extending from preparation of measurement and collection of exposure data through to the generation and interpretation of reports. The product provides exposure data in an optimised data structure and through extended indexes of codes, thereby enhancing data quality for use in the MEGA process and thus supporting the identification of occupational diseases, planning of preventive activity and conducting of epidemiological analyses. At the same time, measurement reports and exposure data are managed consistently, readability is improved, and data is made available more quickly to labour inspectors and companies. OMEGAone can be used for work both online and offline, and is designed for a range of terminal devices. Measurement reports can be edited and made available without the need for additional software, and documents relevant to the work are made available during the procedure. A key feature of OMEGAone is its multi-client capability, with secure central storage and backup on the DGUV infrastructure, together with logically separate access for each of the German Social Accident Insurance Institutions.

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