Max
04-25-2003, 06:40 PM
Top U.S. Health Experts to Discuss Injury Prevention
April 25, 2003 02:24:46 PM PST, Reuters
Officials from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) (CDC) and other health experts from around the country are meeting in Atlanta Monday to confront the leading cause of death and disability in people younger than 45 -- preventable injuries.
This will be the first time that the U.S. Surgeon General, the director of the CDC, the administrator of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (news - web sites) and the executive director of the American Public Health Association (news - web sites) will meet at one conference to discuss the country's complacency toward preventable injuries.
More than two million people suffer from injuries that could be prevented, and these numbers have reached "epidemic proportions," according to the American Trauma Society. Those injuries include swimming pool accidents, firearm injuries and automobile accidents, to name a few.
"I look at injury as the forgotten epidemic," Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, told Reuters Health in an interview.
Billions of dollars are spent annually on healthcare and in caring for people who are disabled by injuries, according to Dr. Sue Binder, director of the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
In an interview with Reuters Health, Binder said the purpose of the conference is to bring together the people who provide injury prevention programs with the people who conduct research in these areas.
"The other real purpose," Binder said, "is to come together as a field to try to understand how we can change the mindset of our country and of our population so that people realize they can prevent injuries and take the appropriate actions to keep them and their families safe."
But Benjamin says the country is doing well in some aspects of trauma response.
"This is the country to be in an automobile accident," he said. "We have a good shock trauma system that we have built. But we have an aging trauma system, and we are beginning to see physicians who are not interested in taking trauma care anymore because of the costs and liability, and we have to address that."
The symposium will also address disaster prevention, domestic violence and preventable childhood injuries.
The current Miss America (news - web sites), Erika Harold, is scheduled to speak about empowering youth against peer-to-peer violence. Experts will also discuss child abuse and present school-based injury prevention programs.
The two-day National Injury Prevention Conference is closed to the public, but the opening session on Monday, April 28th, will be available at http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/conference/default.htm.
http://health.yahoo.com/search/healthnews?lb=s&p=id%3A40945
April 25, 2003 02:24:46 PM PST, Reuters
Officials from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) (CDC) and other health experts from around the country are meeting in Atlanta Monday to confront the leading cause of death and disability in people younger than 45 -- preventable injuries.
This will be the first time that the U.S. Surgeon General, the director of the CDC, the administrator of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (news - web sites) and the executive director of the American Public Health Association (news - web sites) will meet at one conference to discuss the country's complacency toward preventable injuries.
More than two million people suffer from injuries that could be prevented, and these numbers have reached "epidemic proportions," according to the American Trauma Society. Those injuries include swimming pool accidents, firearm injuries and automobile accidents, to name a few.
"I look at injury as the forgotten epidemic," Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, told Reuters Health in an interview.
Billions of dollars are spent annually on healthcare and in caring for people who are disabled by injuries, according to Dr. Sue Binder, director of the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
In an interview with Reuters Health, Binder said the purpose of the conference is to bring together the people who provide injury prevention programs with the people who conduct research in these areas.
"The other real purpose," Binder said, "is to come together as a field to try to understand how we can change the mindset of our country and of our population so that people realize they can prevent injuries and take the appropriate actions to keep them and their families safe."
But Benjamin says the country is doing well in some aspects of trauma response.
"This is the country to be in an automobile accident," he said. "We have a good shock trauma system that we have built. But we have an aging trauma system, and we are beginning to see physicians who are not interested in taking trauma care anymore because of the costs and liability, and we have to address that."
The symposium will also address disaster prevention, domestic violence and preventable childhood injuries.
The current Miss America (news - web sites), Erika Harold, is scheduled to speak about empowering youth against peer-to-peer violence. Experts will also discuss child abuse and present school-based injury prevention programs.
The two-day National Injury Prevention Conference is closed to the public, but the opening session on Monday, April 28th, will be available at http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/conference/default.htm.
http://health.yahoo.com/search/healthnews?lb=s&p=id%3A40945