MCW Comprehensive Injury Center Education

Injury remains a significant public health problem and has been called, "the neglected disease of modern society." In the United States and in Wisconsin, injury is the leading cause of premature death for all individuals, exceeding heart disease and cancer; injury is the leading cause of all deaths for individuals aged one to 44 years old.

Physicians play a vital role in injury prevention and control because of their direct experiences caring for injured patients and their perspectives on effective population-based intervention strategies. By participating in injury control and prevention research, physicians are able to have a substantial impact on all aspects of injury from population-based prevention strategies to treatment and rehabilitation guidelines. The purpose of this course is to expose physicians-in-training to injury control and prevention research from a variety of physician specialties through integration with the Comprehensive Injury Center.

This course is designed to provide students with an opportunity to build on previous injury and public health research experience. Students are expected to have participated in the CIC's Summer Student Program or have some equivalent background/experience in conducting public health research. This course will further develop the student's knowledge of injury from a population health perspective.

Goals of the elective:

1. Understand injury as a biosocial disease using injury epidemiology
2. Describe the physician's role in preventing and reducing injuries
3. Describe injury research methods, injury datasets, and population-based injury prevention strategies, and
4. Conduct injury control and prevention research by identifying research questions, reviewing literature, conducting data analysis, and interpreting and presenting findings

For more information contact Sara Kohlbeck at (414) 955-7667 or skohlbeck@mcw.edu.