Injuries are a growing public health problem worldwide as thousands of people are killed, injured, and disabled every day. As one of the leading causes of death and disability in the world, human trauma and injury disproportionately affect individuals in developing countries. The impact of trauma and injury in low- and middle-income countries is devastating, thus requiring increased efforts to train health care professionals and research faculty on this topic in these countries. During the previous Fogarty International Center TRAUMA grant based upon the collaboration between the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt, we trained approximately 450 trainees from Egypt, Iraq, Sudan, Palestine and Afghanistan in one or more of the training programs initiated through the grant. Eleven out of the thirteen trainees who matriculated into the intensive injury research summer training program and mentored research project have accepted faculty positions at academic institutions in Egypt. One of the remaining trainees is now the Director of the Emergency Department in a Health Insurance Hospital while the other is a key injury epidemiologist in the Ministry of Health. As a continuation of our previous successful work over the past six years in injury prevention research training in the Arab Republic of Egypt, we will accomplish three main objectives, which are 1) To continue to train our growing cadre of traumatologists and emergency physicians in the use of currently available methodologies in trauma resuscitation, injury research, and the collection of data about injuries, 2) In conjunction with our developing World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center, to further the development of our program to expand research and training opportunities for injury-related research in Egypt and the Arab Middle East, 3) To expand our select group of health professionals trained in our intensive summer injury research training courses, followed by in-country mentored research activities, to cement and expand our core group of injury researchers in Egypt and the Arab Middle East and work with them to develop sustainable injury research programs. These objectives will be accomplished through a coordinated and organized program built upon the existing successful collaboration between the University of Maryland and Ain Shams University with guidance from experts in the United States and in Egypt. Our goals in this funding period are 1) to meet all ongoing requirements of WHO for finalizing our WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training on Injury Prevention and Management at Ain Shams University, 2) to expand our training programs to Alexandria University in Egypt and Garyounis University in Libya in order to raise awareness and efforts related to injury research and injury prevention, and 3) to conduct at least two short- term injury related training courses per year, and 4) to enroll five trainees per year in the intensive injury research summer/mentored research project long-term training.
This project is between the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt. It is designed to help health professionals in Egypt, Libya and the Arab Middle East to increase their knowledge and understanding of human trauma and injury prevention and apply this knowledge in public health practice in order to decrease the significant morbidity and mortality caused by injuries.
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