M4 Integrated Selective

The Trauma and Injury Control Integrated Selective was designed to gain a better understanding of the impact of injury to the individual and population. Many disciplines have been organized in order to expose four areas involved in evaluation of an isolated event and its ramifications for injury prevention. These areas are 1) acute patient management, 2) rehabilitation, 3) forensic pathology and 4) injury prevention in the community. Five specific goals have been proposed:

1. Increase exposure and appreciation for the clinical impact of injury via a Level I dedicated trauma facility - Specifically:  system organization, resource allocation and utilization, social and emotional impact of injury and cost of care.
2. Assess quality of life issues after debilitating injuries specifically relating to spinal cord injury and long-term sequelae (social and financial burdens, loss of work hours, etc.).
3. Review the principles of forensic medicine as it pertains to identifying specific causes of tissue and organ injury leading to death (crash biomechanics and wound ballistics).
4. Apply the clinical evidence and forensic principles to crash investigation with the eventual goal of developmental advances and applications toward injury prevention.
5. Appreciate the need for community activity in education of injury prevention.

Rotation schedules have been designed to maximize the potential of seeing injury related patient issues. The first day of each week will be spent at the medical examiners office to partake in autopsies of the injured to gain a unique appreciation of cause and affect relationships and identifying means of prevention. The remainder of each week will be spent with different physicians or groups of physicians to gain exposure to isolated aspects on injury.

For more information call Mary Czinner at 955-7671 or mczinner@mcw.edu.