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| Vol. 22, No. 18 |
| October 1, 2000 |
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Coalition Works to Develop Child Injury Reporting System By Lori Williams Baylor College of Medicine Major leaders in injury prevention are collaborating on a system to keep track of where and how children are injured in Harris County. The Houston Trauma LINK, Linking Information Networking Knowledge, is being funded with a $186,500 grant from the Texas Department of Health to Baylor College of Medicine. "Right now, we have a lot of information on injuries available to the community. Unfortunately, it's very fragmented," said Michael DeGuzman, project manager for the Baylor Injury Center. The goal of the coalition is to link many of the systems now in use by law enforcement, health care providers, research institutions and public health agencies in order to provide a comprehensive picture of injury, through the trauma care system in the community. For example, information currently available about children injured in motor vehicle crashes differs among the different data systems. "We can learn from the bits and pieces available now, such as crash details from law enforcement, injury details from EMS, and trauma care from hospitals. But, we don't have a system to tell us about crashes involving children wearing seat belts that result in abdominal injuries," said DeGuzman. He said a system for comparing details of the different injuries seen in emergency centers would help in the development of intervention programs. "This enhanced level of information is exactly what our coalition hopes to attain, not just for crashes, but for all injuries," said DeGuzman. The plan does not call for complete changes to anyone's system. "All of our coalition member agencies have a system for injury data, but, unfortunately, they differ on many levels. Collection and reporting of data may be at different intervals, or the agencies may code the same information differently," said DeGuzman. The coalition officially launched its effort in the community in a planning session Sept. 14. The grant program was created by the Texas Legislature. Money for the Innovation Grant awards comes from the Permanent Fund for Children and Public Health, a fund established by the Legislature with money from the 1998 Texas-tobacco industry settlement.
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