Injury surveillance in special populations

Abstract

The rapid technological advancements during the late 1980s and early 1990s provided public health professionals and researchers with newfound capabilities to conduct public health surveillance, including dramatic advancements in injury surveillance. Continued technological advancements have similarly increased the ability to conduct injury surveillance in special populations. Through innovative approaches, injury surveillance has become easier and less expensive. Given the wealth of data available to researchers as a result of modern public health advances, if a source of data cannot be identified for a target population, it is likely a special population that may require innovative surveillance methodologies. The most appropriate injury surveillance approach for any specific surveillance project in a special population will depend upon the feasibility of utilizing various methodologies, the funds available, and the conceptual framework within which the researcher and the special population are approaching the injury issue. Public health professionals and academic researchers must never forget that the goal of injury surveillance in special populations is to collect the data necessary to drive development of effective injury prevention efforts. Injury surveillance studies in special populations should never be mere academic exercises whose impacts reach no further than an article in a peer-review journal. Innovation in surveillance methodology is only the first step; effective application of surveillance data to drive positive change in the special populations under surveillance is the real goal.