As one of the leading causes of death and disability in the world, human trauma and injury disproportionately affects children and young individuals in all countries. Injuries from motor vehicle collisions are a prime example of this damage to societies. According to the World Health Organization, road traffic accidents worldwide disable between 20 and 50 million individuals and kill 1.2 million people per year. The majority of individuals affected are young adults, especially men. As a continuation of our previous work in injury prevention research at the Charles McC. Mathias, Jr. National Study Center for Trauma and Emergency Medical Services (NSC) and in trauma resuscitation at R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center (Shock Trauma), the goal of this National Research Service Award (NRSA) institutional research training grant is to create a formal program wherein individuals with an M.D. or a Ph.D. degree can train to be independent investigators in injury control and trauma response research. This training program is designed to enable trainees to: (1) master a core curriculum in epidemiology and biostatistics;(2) become knowledgeable about the basic biological and psychosocial aspects of trauma and injury prevention;(3) become an expert in at least one substantive area relevant to injury control and trauma response;(4) learn to contribute to a research team under the supervision of a primary mentor with expertise in an aspect of injury prevention and control;and (5) demonstrate the capacity to conduct independent, original research. Considering the depth of expertise available at the University of Maryland, we have an ideal environment to collaborate on these educational efforts. The combination of University of Maryland at Baltimore's internationally recognized injury control research and trauma resuscitation practices in conjunction with our excellent didactic program in epidemiology and biostatistics provides an outstanding framework for the development of an injury prevention and injury control research training program. The proposed project will provide the training to enable new researchers to conduct high quality injury control and trauma response research that can help to reduce the devastating impact caused by tens of thousands of annual traumatic injuries and deaths.
