Reducing death and disability caused by alcohol-related intentional and non-intentional injuries is a major world-wide health goal for the World Health Organization. Alcohol use has been linked with a substantial proportion of injuries and deaths from motor vehicle crashes, falls, and fires. In Poland and other Eastern European countries that have been experiencing rapid social and cultural changes, problems related to extremely high per capita alcohol consumption and the rising rate of alcohol-related injury have become critically important national concerns. Injury and trauma constitute the third leading cause of death in Poland, with a preponderance of alcohol-related mortality. Developing an infrastructure to expand the capacity for injury and alcohol research and prevention in Poland will address an escalating public health problem that has the potential for devastating health and economic consequences to this region over the next decades. To accomplish this goal, a multi-tiered research training program will be established through collaboration among researchers at the University of Michigan (UM) and Wroclaw Medical University (WMU) and several other academic medical settings in Poland. This builds on a successful training and research collaboration between UM and Polish scientists at the Institute of Neurology and Psychiatry, and the Medical College of Warsaw focused on substance use disorders. This new specific injury and alcohol collaboration brings together expertise in alcohol-related injury prevention, EMS/Trauma services, psychiatry, public health, and transportation research at UM with a developing expertise in injury and trauma medicine and public health at WMU in order to increase training and research capacity in Poland. A consortium at Wroclaw Medical University and academic medical and public health locations throughout Poland will be fostered through this collaborative effort. The program will train visiting Polish scientists at the UM in alcohol and injury research methodology, and develop mentored programs of research that address current issues in alcohol and injury prevention, treatment, and evaluation in Poland. The Polish research infrastructure for addressing substance abuse-related injuries will be improved by the provision of an essential core of clinician scientists capable of conducting independent research projects and developing new programming to address this critical issue in emergency medicine and public health. Public Health Relevance: The high levels of per capita alcohol consumption and alcohol-related injuries, combined with a limited research infrastructure to address these issues, present significant public health challenges to Poland and other former Soviet-bloc countries. This proposed training program will develop the capacity for high quality injury and trauma research in Poland that can serve as the core of a region-wide consortium to address a growing, critical health care burden in these developing countries. ? ? ?
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