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UConn Health Center
The Exchange,
270 Farmington Avenue, Building 3, 2nd floor, Suite 262
Farmington, CT 06030-6210

Clinic/Employee Health Phone:
(860) 679-2893
Academic Phone:
(860) 679-4095
FAX: (860) 679-1349
Email:  oehc@nso.uchc.edu

Contact the
Office of Research Safety
if you ARE a UConn Health Center employee who is concerned about your safety and health on the job and wish to obtain assistance, including ergonomic evaluations of workstations, chemical hazards, and radiation safety at the Health Center.

Contact the
Occupational and Environmental
Health Center

or the
Ergonomic Technology Center
for similar requests and concerns, if you are NOT a UConn Health Center employee.


Contact the
Connecticut Poison Control Center
for immediate help with a poison or hazardous chemical exposure at:
1-800-222-1222 (toll-free)
or
1-866-218-5372
(for hearing impaired).

 
It is with profound sadness that we inform you of the passing on September 16, 2009 of Marcia Trapé-Cardoso M.D., F.A.C.P., M.R.O., associate professor of clinical medicine, following a short illness. 

Dr. Trapé joined the Health Center in 1992, as the medical director of the Employee Health Service. She achieved national recognition in the field of employee health with a focus on work-related exposures to health care workers. Dr. Trapé has been an active member of the Board of Directors for the Occupational and Environmental Medical Association of Connecticut, a chapter of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. She has played an important leadership role in this organization holding several key positions most recently as a state delegate for the National House of Delegates. Dr. Trapé recently received the Irving J. Selikoff Professional Excellence Award from the Connecticut Council on Occupational Safety and Health. ConnectiCOSH is a non-profit, statewide organization which helps unions, individuals and communities win healthier and safer working and living conditions.

Dr. Trapé was passionate about ensuring the health and safety of employees including educating the Heath Center community on the importance of workplace safety, influenza prevention, hand hygiene, andblood borne pathogen exposures. She was a preceptor in the primary care program of internal medicine, a lecturer in the Masters in Public Health Program, and an adviser and teacher of graduate students, residents and medical students.  

Dr. Trapé achieved many accomplishments in her professional career. Among those, she was an integral part of the Genesis Team that provided smallpox vaccinations to various state and acute care healthcare providers. Her research interests included reducing occupational injuries and illnesses in migrant and seasonal tobacco farm workers for which she had a grant from the CDC.

With Dr. Trapé’s passing, UCONN loses an exceptionally dedicated and valued member of our faculty. 

Marcia Trapé-Cardoso

Marcia Trapé-Cardoso MD, FACP, MRO

  • Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine
  • Clinical Director, Occupational Medicine Clinic
  • Medical Director, Employee Health Service

Degrees, Universities Attended

  • MD, University of São Paulo School of Medicine, São Paulo, Brazil

Brief Chronology of Professional Career

Marcia Trapé-Cardoso, MD, FACP, MRO has been with the University of Connecticut Health Center since 1992, and holds an appointment as an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Department of Medicine, Division of Occupational & Environmental Medicine. After medical school at the University of São Paulo, Dr. Trapé completed a Residency in Internal Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in Hartford, CT, and returned to Brazil in 1977. She began her career in Occupational Medicine working for over four years for Unilever, in the Valinhos' plant, in the São Paulo State. While in Brazil, she completed a core curriculum for a master in public health at the University of Campinas School of Medicine. She returned to the US in 1982 and has worked for the past 25 years for the State of CT, and for more than 20 years managing and caring for patients with work-related injuries and diseases. Dr. Trapé is board certified in Internal Medicine (1977) and Preventive Medicine (as a specialist in Occupational Medicine, 1995).

Dr. Trapé has achieved national recognition in the field of Employee Health with a focus on work-related exposures to health care workers. She is an expert in the areas of blood-borne pathogen exposures to health care workers, latex sensitization, tuberculosis control and violence prevention, as well as more general topics involving employee health evaluation. Dr. Trapé was the recipient of several Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cooperative grants and became the first to implement the National Surveillance for Hospitals Health Care Workers (NaSH) software for surveillance in the State of Connecticut. Additionally, Dr. Trapé obtained grant support from the Northeast Center for Agricultural Health (CDC) and Faculty Research Grant (HCRAC) for research about occupational nicotine exposure in CT tobacco workers. She is currently funded for work on building a coalition with a community health program and a research team to reduce occupational injuries and illnesses in migrant and seasonal tobacco farm workers.

Dr. Trapé has been an active member of the Board of Directors for the Occupational and Environmental Medical Association of Connecticut (OEMAC), a Chapter of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM). Dr. Trapé has played an important leadership role in this organization serving as Secretary/Treasurer in 1998-99, Vice President in 1999-2000 and President-elect for 2000-2001, and President for 2001-2002, Treasurer/Secretary 2003-2004, and as a state delegate for the National House of Delegates for 3 years (2005-2008).

Dr. Trapé has been the clinical director of the Occupational Medicine Clinic of the University of Connecticut Health Center and was integral part of the Genesis Team to provide Smallpox immunization to health care workers throughout the state of CT in early 2003. Dr. Trapé serves as a consultant in Occupational Medicine to the University of Connecticut Department of Environmental Health and Safety and helped them to develop and implement their Occupational Health and Safety Program for Animal Handlers at Storrs. She is also the Consultant Medical Director for the United Technologies Research Center and Otis Elevators. She has provided consultations for several Employee Health Clinics from acute and long-term care facilities throughout the state in the areas of policy development according with OSHA standards and procedures and investigation and control of hazardous exposures.

Dr. Trapé is a lecturer at the Masters in Public Health Program and holds a faculty appointment with the graduate school. She has been advising Public Health graduate students since 1998, and also teaches residents and medical students. Dr. Trapé is a member of the Infection Control Committee, the AIDS Task Force, and the Admissions Committee of the School of Medicine. She chairs the Inter-Hospitals EHS Residency Committee and the Employee Health Advisory Committee.

Main responsibilities at the UConn Health Center

Dr. Trapé dedicates 30% of her time to clinical services in the Occupational Medicine Clinic where she also exerts the function of Clinical Director securing and implement contracts with private businesses and state agencies. Additionally, she is the Medical Director for the Employee Health Service of the University of Connecticut Health Center function involving participation in internal and external committees, educating staff, doing risk assessment and communication, and responding to the regulatory requirements of OSHA, JCAHO and the State for the Health Center workers, students, residents and volunteers. Teaching and research are also part of her duties.

Major Research Interests

Health care workers and blood and body fluid exposures, occupational problems affecting migrant farmworkers, workplace violence, and health and wellness.

Current Grants

NEC-NYCAMH (CDC) Grant, 2006 to 2011 "Reducing Occupational Injuries and Illnesses in Migrant and Seasonal Tobacco Farm workers through a coalition with a community health program and a research team" Principal Investigator

Curriculum Vitae

Available in Portable Document Format (PDF):

Publications

  • Mohammad A, Trapé M, Khan Y “Serological Survey of Mumps Immunity Among Healthcare Workers in CT, December 2006- May 2007” Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology 2009;30(2):202-203.
  • Croteau M and Trapé M. “Globally Emerging Occupational Infections.”  In Wright WE (ed.), Couturier’s Occupational and Environmental Infectious Diseases, 2nd ed., Beverly Farms, MA, OEM Press, 2008, Pp 674-704.
  • Trapé-Cardoso M et al “Latent Tuberculosis among Latino Migrant Farmworkers in Connecticut” Connecticut Medicine 2008;72(7): 405-409.
  • Trapé-Cardoso M, Bracker A, Dauser D, Oncken C, Barrera LV, Gould B, Grey A “Cotinine Levels and GTS among Shade-tobacco Workers” Journal of Agromedicine 2005; 10(2): 27-37
  • Trapé-Cardoso M, "Blunting the Risk of Sharps’ Injuries: Comprehensive Approach Targets High-risk Groups" Life Sciences Business & Technology Review, Winter 2005, 2: 88-92
  • Trapé-Cardoso M, Schenck P. “Reducing percutaneous injuries at an academic health center: a five-year review,” American Journal of Infection Control, 2004; 32 (5):301-305.
  • Trapé-Cardoso M, Bracker A, Grey M, Kaliszewski M, Oncken C, Ohannessian C et al. “Shade Tobacco and Green Tobacco Sickness in Connecticut," J Occup Environ Med. 2003;45:656-661
  • Trapé M "Greeting from your President: 30 Years Anniversary of the OSHA Act" and "In the Aftermath of September 11, 2001," OEMAC Newsletter, March 2002.
  • Trapé, M. and Barnosky, S. “Nelfinavir in Expanded Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) Causing Acute Cholangitic Hepatitis: Two Case Report,” Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, 2001;22 (6):333-334.
  • Trapé M, Schenck P, Warren A. "Latex Gloves Used and Symptoms in HealthCare Workers One Year after Implementation of a Policy Restricting the Use of Powdered Gloves", American Journal of Infection Control, 2000;28:352-8.
  • Trapé M "Allergy symptoms continue despite powder-free gloves"- Hospital Employee Health, May 1999, Vol. 18, No. 5, pages 55-57.
  • Trapé M, "Workplace Violence: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration Guidelines", Connecticut Medicine, 1998; 62 (6): 333-336.
Link to Employee Health Service Last update:September 18, 2009