"Injury is a public health problem whose toll is unacceptable," claims this book from the Committee on Trauma Research. Although injuries kill more Americans from 1 to 34 years old than all diseases combined, little is spent on prevention and treatment research. In addition, between $75 billion and $100 billion each year is spent on injury-related health costs. Not only does the book provide a comprehensive survey of what is known about injuries, it suggests there is a vast need to know more. Injury in America traces findings on the epidemiology of injuries, prevention of injuries, injury biomechanics and the prevention of impact injury, treatment, rehabilitation, and administration of injury research.

Injuries are the leading cause of death and disability among people under age 35 in the United States. Despite great strides in injury prevention over the decades, injuries result in 150,000 deaths, 2.6 million hospitalizations, and 36 million visits to the emergency room each year. Reducing the Burden of Injury describes the cost and magnitude of the injury problem in America and looks critically at the current response by the public and private sectors, including: Data and surveillance needs. Research priorities. Trauma care systems development. Infrastructure support, including training for injury professionals. Firearm safety. Coordination among federal agencies. The authors define the field of injury and establish boundaries for the field regarding intentional injuries. This book highlights the crosscutting nature of the injury field, identifies opportunities to leverage resources and expertise of the numerous parties involved, and discusses issues regarding leadership at the federal level.

Significant changes have taken place in the policy landscape surrounding cannabis legalization, production, and use. During the past 20 years, 25 states and the District of Columbia have legalized cannabis and/or cannabidiol (a component of cannabis) for medical conditions or retail sales at the state level and 4 states have legalized both the medical and recreational use of cannabis. These landmark changes in policy have impacted cannabis use patterns and perceived levels of risk. However, despite this changing landscape, evidence regarding the short- and long-term health effects of cannabis use remains elusive. While a myriad of studies have examined cannabis use in all its various forms, often these research conclusions are not appropriately synthesized, translated for, or communicated to policy makers, health care providers, state health officials, or other stakeholders who have been charged with influencing and enacting policies, procedures, and laws related to cannabis use. Unlike other controlled substances such as alcohol or tobacco, no accepted standards for safe use or appropriate dose are available to help guide individuals as they make choices regarding the issues of if, when, where, and how to use cannabis safely and, in regard to therapeutic uses, effectively. Shifting public sentiment, conflicting and impeded scientific research, and legislative battles have fueled the debate about what, if any, harms or benefits can be attributed to the use of cannabis or its derivatives, and this lack of aggregated knowledge has broad public health implications. The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids provides a comprehensive review of scientific evidence related to the health effects and potential therapeutic benefits of cannabis. This report provides a research agendaâ€"outlining gaps in current knowledge and opportunities for providing additional insight into these issuesâ€"that summarizes and prioritizes pressing research needs.

From a public health perspective, motor vehicle crashes are among the most serious problems facing teenagers. Even after more than six months of being licensed to drive alone, teens are two to three times more likely to be in a fatal crash than are the more experienced drivers. Crash rates are significantly higher for male drivers, and young people in the United States are at greater risk of dying or being injured in an automobile than their peers around the world. In fact, in 2003 motor vehicle crashes was the leading cause of death for youth ages 16-20 in the United States. Understanding how and why teen motor vehicle crashes happen is key to developing countermeasures to reduce their number. Applying this understanding to the development of prevention strategies holds significant promise for improving safety but many of these efforts are thwarted by a lack of evidence as to which prevention strategies are most effective. Preventing Teen Motor Crashes presents data from a multidisciplinary group that shared information on emerging technology for studying, monitoring, and controlling driving behavior. The book provides an overview of the factual information that was presented, as well as the insights that emerged about the role researchers can play in reducing and preventing teen motor crashes.

Experts estimate that as many as 98,000 people die in any given year from medical errors that occur in hospitals. That's more than die from motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer, or AIDSâ€"three causes that receive far more public attention. Indeed, more people die annually from medication errors than from workplace injuries. Add the financial cost to the human tragedy, and medical error easily rises to the top ranks of urgent, widespread public problems. To Err Is Human breaks the silence that has surrounded medical errors and their consequenceâ€"but not by pointing fingers at caring health care professionals who make honest mistakes. After all, to err is human. Instead, this book sets forth a national agendaâ€"with state and local implicationsâ€"for reducing medical errors and improving patient safety through the design of a safer health system. This volume reveals the often startling statistics of medical error and the disparity between the incidence of error and public perception of it, given many patients' expectations that the medical profession always performs perfectly. A careful examination is made of how the surrounding forces of legislation, regulation, and market activity influence the quality of care provided by health care organizations and then looks at their handling of medical mistakes. Using a detailed case study, the book reviews the current understanding of why these mistakes happen. A key theme is that legitimate liability concerns discourage reporting of errorsâ€"which begs the question, "How can we learn from our mistakes?" Balancing regulatory versus market-based initiatives and public versus private efforts, the Institute of Medicine presents wide-ranging recommendations for improving patient safety, in the areas of leadership, improved data collection and analysis, and development of effective systems at the level of direct patient care. To Err Is Human asserts that the problem is not bad people in health careâ€"it is that good people are working in bad systems that need to be made safer. Comprehensive and straightforward, this book offers a clear prescription for raising the level of patient safety in American health care. It also explains how patients themselves can influence the quality of care that they receive once they check into the hospital. This book will be vitally important to federal, state, and local health policy makers and regulators, health professional licensing officials, hospital administrators, medical educators and students, health caregivers, health journalists, patient advocatesâ€"as well as patients themselves. First in a series of publications from the Quality of Health Care in America, a project initiated by the Institute of Medicine

Injuries are one of the most serious public health problems facing the United States today. Through premature death, disability, medical cost and lost productivity, injuries impact the health and welfare of all Americans. Deaths only begin to tell the story. Although many injuries are minor, a large proportion result in fractures, amputations, burns, or other significant injuries that have far-reaching consequences. Now, for the first time in over 15 years, we have comprehensive estimates of the impact of these injuries in economic terms. This book updates a landmark Report to Congress from 1989. Since the report, no undertaking has addressed the incidence and economic burden of injuries with more timely data, despite major changes in the fields of prevention, reporting, and surveillance. Since the mid-eighties, new safety technologies have been developed to prevent injuries or to decrease the severity of injuries, and new policies and laws have been enacted to promote injury prevention. Chapter topics include incidence by detailed categorizations, lifetime medical costs and productivity losses as a result of injuries, and a discussion of recent trends. Lavishly illustrated with tables and graphs, this volume is a valuable reference for public health practitioners, researchers, and students alike.