Last week UC San Diego launched a new research center that will study traumatic injury as a disease. KPBS Radio's Tom Fudge has more.
This new center is called the Injury Epidemiology Prevention and Research Center. But are we really suffering an epidemic of traumatic injuries? Dr. Raul Coimbra is a trauma surgeon and one of the founders of the center. He says traumatic injuries kill more Americans between the ages of one and 44 than any other disease or illness. Coimbra says there's no virus going around, but trauma is no accident. It's a disease that's linked to human behavior.
"The importance of this center is to increase awareness that this is a disease, and as such we can understand why it happens, we can understand what the consequences are, and we can prevent it," he says.
He says the center will employ a trauma doctors, preventive specialists and psychologists. Their goal is to find new ways to reduce traumatic injury. Tom Fudge, KPBS News.
