A few weeks ago, I was invited to participate in a summit of over 50 pediatric trauma specialists from across the country in Winston-Salem, NC. Our goal: to create a 10-year plan to improve pediatric trauma care in the areas of research, treatment, and education. CHOP was well represented at the Pediatric Trauma Summit.

Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma, pediatric trauma care

Two weeks ago, The Center for Child Injury Prevention Studies (CChIPS) held its annual Advances in Child Injury Prevention (ACIP) conference in Plymouth, Michigan. ACIP presents the latest research in traffic safety for children and adolescents. Attendance at ACIP has grown every year, this time attracting over 100 participants from 38 companies. Presenters include investigators funded by CChIPS as well as external investigators who are invited by CChIPS to update the participants on relevant new work.

During the 2012 National Teen Driver Safety Week (NTDSW) on October 18, we stepped up our digital communications game by organizing and hosting our first hour-long Twitter Chat. Here are lessons learned for fellow injury prevention communicators...

Twitter Chats, Digital communications

Millions of children experience injuries or sudden illnesses each year, leaving families to face challenging emotional reactions in addition to physical recovery. Unfortunately, there are very few resources available to support children through this recovery. To address this need, our team collaborated with colleagues at the University of Queensland in Australia to develop a web-based game called Coping Coach – a fun, interactive way to help a large number of children with their emotional recovery.

Coping Coach, web-based interventions, emotional recovery from injury, AfterTheInjury

I recently received practical questions from an audience of Child Passenger Safety (CPS) technicians about how they should share with parents the results of my on-going research. The short answer is: continue to educate parents exactly as you have been doing using current National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) guidelines. Child safety seats and booster seats, as they are, are very effective at protecting children in crashes. However, until all preventable injuries have been eliminated, we will strive to continue to reduce that risk. One way is to improve the tools we use to design child restraint systems...

FMVSS 213, CPS education

May is Global Youth Traffic Safety Month™ (GYTSM) and the perfect time to remind parents and teens to promote safe driving and passenger behaviors during prom, graduation, and other special events that mark the end of the school year.

Teen Driver Safety, teen crashes, prom safety, distracted driving, crash prevention

Seventy percent of rear seat occupants are children and adolescents, so it’s important to consider their unique safety needs as part of any improvements to the rear seat. Released today, a new CPS Issue Report provides recommendations for research and policy to help guide traffic safety colleagues in their consideration of priorities for safety in the rear seat, especially as it pertains to NHTSA’s Request for Comment to identify needed improvements to the New Car Assessment Program.

CPS Issue Report, rear seat safety, seat belt engineering, NHTSA, New Car Assessment Program

In a recent post, I described the health policy community’s keen interest in CIRP@CHOP’s research on New Jersey’s GDL “decal” requirement. Later that month the Public Health Law Webinar Series hosted a panel of research and program experts to discuss the NJ GDL Decal requirement.

GDL vehicle identifiers, NJ Decals

Since April is Autism Awareness Month, I wanted to dedicate this blog to discussing the issue of driving in teens with autism spectrum disorders. Lately, I have been fielding more and more questions from parents of teens with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) about whether their teens are ready to drive.

autism spectrum disorders, developmental disabilties

I joined The Center for Child Injury Prevention Studies (CChIPS) just a few months ago as Project Manager, and since Day One our team has been gearing up for our annual Spring Industry Advisory Board meeting. Over the past few months, I’ve spoken to over twenty Board members to systematically assess their reasons for joining CChIPS, their perspectives on the role of the IAB, and strategies for sustainability into the future. It’s clear that our Board members are passionate about their work and proud they are contributing to the safety of children every day.

Child safety research, National Science Foundation, I/UCRC