Hospital: Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Doctor(s): Dr. Brendan Williams
Research Topic: Epidemiological Changes in Pediatric Fractures in the Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics
Testimonial:
Understanding the epidemiology of injury is critical in the field of pediatric orthopaedics and musculoskeletal medicine as a large proportion of the patients we evaluate and the pathology we diagnose and treat result from acute injuries. We utilize this information to understand injury patterns across various demographic groups and activities that children participate in, which can then be used to guide further research efforts in our field. NEISS has provided our research team with an invaluable data set to explore a variety of topics such as injuries resulting from trampoline use and the changes in fracture patterns in pediatric patients occurring during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through our work and others like it, we aspire to better understand the patterns of pediatric musculoskeletal injury which can help to guide the implementation of improved safety measures and facilitate our counseling of patients and families regarding the risk of injury in certain activities.
Hospital: Yale New Haven Hospital
Contributor(s): Nick Aysseh, MPH- Manager, James Dodington, MD – Medical Director
Research Topic: Injury Prevention
Testimonial:
As an injury prevention center, at a large academic health system, we depend on the NEISS database to provide up-to-date information on national trends in injuries. We are proud to have been contributing data to this extremely important program for almost two decades. Our research teams have utilized the NEISS platform for multiple projects. Most recently, we published a research study entitled, “Firework-related injuries treated at emergency departments in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 compared to 2018-2019,” utilizing the NEISS data around fireworks injuries combined with Firework sales data obtained from the American Pyrotechnics Association (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34758871/). In the coming years, we hope to expand our injury epidemiology research, and thank the CDC and CPSC for their efforts in building and maintaining these systems.
Hospital: Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Contributor(s): Dr. Gary Smith
Research Topic: Our Experience with NEISS at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, Ohio
Gary A. Smith, MD, DrPH, Director, Center for Injury Research and Policy, Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Testimonial:
Nationwide Children’s Hospital has been a reporting site for the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) since 1995. The Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital has used data from the NEISS to publish more than one hundred peer-reviewed articles on consumer product and recreational activity safety. We have been told that we publish more studies using the database than any other entity, except the US government. A nationally representative injury database is rare on a global scale, so NEISS data are exceedingly useful for describing product-related injury trends, emerging hazards, and to assess effects of policy changes at the national level. Our findings from NEISS studies have been used to inform policy decisions by Congress, federal agencies, state legislatures, city halls, and voluntary standard organizations. We target safety messages based on NEISS data to consumers, caregivers, coaches, teachers, policy makers, manufacturers, academic peers, and others. We disseminate information in scientific journals, at national and international conferences, via traditional and social media, and more; our research has garnered multiple billions of impressions via the media annually. We also use data from the NEISS as the basis for student-led research as we mentor future researchers in our field. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission has been wonderful to work with over the years. It has been very supportive as we pursue our common mission to prevent injury-related morbidity and mortality.
Hospital: University of Maryland/ Pediatrics
Contributor(s): Dr. R. Lichenstein
Research Topic: Ambulatory cell phone injuries in the United States in the Journal of Safety Research
Testimonial:
As a practicing pediatric emergency medicine physician, I became aware of injuries where cell phone use outside of driving seemed to have a potential role. The National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) database was an excellent and useful tool to explore relationships of cell phone use and important health outcomes. Our initial publication Headphone use and pedestrian injury and death in the United States: 2004-2011 published in Injury Prevention received a great deal of attention and resonated within the United States and internationally, regarding the association of potential risk with cell phone use in settings outside of driving and was impactful in highlighting this problem and local advocacy action to prevent future significant injuries and death. This was followed by Ambulatory Cell Phone injuries in the United States: an emerging concern which was published in the Journal of Safety Research in 2012 and catalogued mechanisms of injury, demographics, and outcomes of cell phone use distraction and related injuries which also used the NEISS database. It is important to continue for Emergency Departments to contribute to the NEISS as this repository of information can help uncover trends that may be not always be apparent but may have important public health implications. I appreciate that the NEISS exists for my work and for others that appreciate that risk factors for injury are not static; there is a need to collect information over time on injuries which may evolve as our society changes.