Today in America, more people survive serious injury than any time in the past. Yet trauma remains the leading killer of young people and military service members during combat. Trauma has been characterized as the “neglected epidemic of our time.”
A 2016 report by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) has added new momentum to the effort to complete the nation’s trauma system. It found one in five trauma deaths could be prevented through stronger Federal leadership, greater research funding to improve outcomes, strengthening prehospital care, distributing trauma centers based on need and integrating military and civilian trauma care into one national trauma system.
In a five-part series of stories, “Putting the Pieces Together: A National Effort to Complete the U.S. Trauma System,” the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma will share steps being taken to complete the nation’s trauma system. Stories will look at the history of trauma care and the trauma system in America, partnerships with the military to translate battlefield lessons to the home front and back again, the challenges facing America’s trauma systems, and the steps leading experts are taking to fill the gaps in the system and achieve the goal of zero preventable deaths and disability from injury.
Read the series online at www.facs.org/trauma or follow the ACS COT on Twitter @ACSTrauma.