2005

Dec 23

HIPRC To Develop and Evaluate Designated Driver and Safe Ride Home Programs

In October 2005, the Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center (HIPRC), in partnership with King County Public Health Violence and Injury Prevention division, received a grant from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) to develop and evaluate a designated driver and safe ride home program for Seattle. The program targets the neighborhoods of Belltown, Fremont, Pioneer Square and the University District — areas of the city where more impaired driving incidents involving 21-34 year olds originate.

Click for Full Press Release

Dec 23

Preventing Injury Death Around the World: “The 1,000,000 Lives Campaign”

At least five million people around the world die from trauma each year, with enormous disparities in survival rates for patients injured in high-income and low-income countries. Calling for a 20 percent reduction in this death rate, two researchers at the Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center (HIPRC) outline six scientifically sound interventions that can lead to achieving what they call “an ambitious but feasible goal.”

Click for Full Press Release

Nov 30

Many Parents Slow to Adapt to Booster Seat Law

Booster seats have been proven to protect children from serious injury, yet new research shows that in some communities fewer than 21 percent of children 4-8 years old are properly secured in booster seats when they ride in cars. More children were observed to be completely unrestrained (34 percent) or inadequately protected by an adult seat belt (45 percent).

Click for Full Press Release

Oct 24

Rivara Elected to Institute of Medicine

Frederick P. Rivara, M.D., M.P.H., has been elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies. The IOM, chartered in 1970 as a component of the National Academy of Sciences, provides science-based advice on matters of biomedical science, medicine and health. Members are elected on the basis of their professional achievement and their demonstrated interest, concern and involvement with problems and critical issues that affect the health of the public.

Click for Full Press Release

Aug 8

Intimate partner violence often ignored in determining child custody

Most states mandate some consideration of intimate partner violence (IPV) in child custody proceedings, but the existence of such abuse is often unknown to the court when custody is at issue. This finding, by investigators at the Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center (HIPRC), is published in the August 2005 issue of Violence Against Women.

Click for Full Press Release

Apr 25

Washington Legislature strengthens booster seat law

Washington's Child Restraint Law, passed in 2002 as the first such law to be enacted in the U.S. , has been updated to require proper child restraint and booster seat use until a child is 8 years old unless he or she is 4'9” tall. The new law, effective as of June 1, 2007, was signed by Gov. Christine Gregoire in an Olympia ceremony at the close of the recent legislative session.

Click for Full Press Release

Mar 21

Pregnant women face risk after motor vehicle crashes regardless of the presence of injuries

Pregnant women who are hospitalized following motor vehicle crashes are at increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes, even if they are not seriously injured or not injured at all. These women are at risk for such difficulties as placental abruption and cesarean section and their babies at risk for respiratory distress syndrome and fetal death, according to a new study by investigators at the Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center (HIPRC).

Click for Full Press Release

Mar 09

Mock Named HIPRC Director

Dr. Charles Mock has been named director of the Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center. Mock, a University of Washington (UW) associate professor with a joint appointment in the departments of Surgery and Epidemiology, first joined the HIPRC in 1992 as a trauma fellow.

Click for Full Press Release

Feb 8

Safe storage of guns, ammunition reduces risk of firearm injury risk to youth

Keeping firearms in a household is associated with a 5-10 fold increased risk of suicide among adolescents, and an estimated 35 percent of homes with children under the age of 18 contain at least one gun. Can secure storage of these firearms prevent children and adolescents from suicides and unintentional injuries caused by firearms?

Click for Full Press Release

Jan 14

Alcohol screening and intervention in the trauma setting save health-care costs by preventing further injuries

Brief alcohol counseling sessions for injured patients, already shown to be effective in reducing subsequent alcohol intake and trauma recidivism, can also reduce health-care costs. Each dollar spent on alcohol screening and intervention saves $3.81 in health expenditures, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, the Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center, and the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health.

Click for Full Press Release