The mission of Trauma Prevention and Outreach at UC San Diego Health is to reduce traumatic injury, disability, and death through education, outreach, and service to the communities we serve. Injuries from trauma that are the most life-threatening are also the most preventable.
Our
Level 1 Trauma Center envisions prevention as the cure for traumatic injury and death and is taking action:
- Through partnerships with other hospitals, universities, police and fire departments, and local nonprofit agencies. This proactive, collaborative approach allows us to share and combine expertise and research findings as well as extend prevention initiatives to those at highest risk for traumatic injury.
- Through research and knowledge gained in academic medicine. Research shows that implementation of best-practice programs can reduce traumatic injuries and death. We apply the knowledge we gain through academic medicine to create highly effective injury prevention strategies.
Learn about our research.
- Through outreach to the community with programs such as
STOP THE BLEED®, the American College of Surgeons’ hands-on bleeding control training for the public.
Video: How to Stop the Bleed
Bystanders can help save lives during an emergency by stopping blood loss. Watch this video with UC San Diego Health trauma surgeon Jay Doucet, MD.
Bystanders can help save lives during an emergency by stopping blood loss. Watch a video with UC San Diego Health trauma surgeon Jay Doucet, MD, demonstrating three methods.
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Trauma Prevention Programs
Thanks to collaborative efforts between various organizations and our experts at
Trauma Research & Education Foundation and Injury Epidemiology, Prevention & Research Center, we have successfully launched several trauma prevention programs in San Diego.
Recognizing that traffic collisions account for the majority of deaths and injuries across all age groups and that 95 percent of these are preventable, UC San Diego Health is taking a role in community efforts to reverse this trend. Some of the ways we are leading include:
- Collaborating with our
San Diego Trauma System partners to enhance countywide reach.
- Providing education and training programs to improve roadway safety through
TREDS, as well as conducting research to inform public policy.
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Take Action Against Distraction and Just Drive provides information on the dangers of distracted driving and offers safe driving advice. - Impaired driving is not an accident.
Decide to Drive Sober shows what to expect at a DUI checkpoint. -
Blood Alcohol Content and Driving and
Driving High is DUI provide information on the effects of alcohol use and marijuana use on driving.
- Partnering with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) to reduce underage drinking and driving.
- Convening community agencies through the TREF Safe Teen Driving Council.
- Contributing data for the San Diego Sheriff’s Start Smart teen driving classes.
In San Diego County, one in four older adults (age 65+) fall each year. UC San Diego Health supports the
San Diego County Health & Human Services Agency Fall Prevention Task Force in fall prevention education for older adults.
Learn about how medication management can mitigate the risk for falls at this presentation from the 2020 Falls Free Workshop:
Medication Management in Older Adults.
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TREDwise – Get There Safely TREDS (The Training, Research and Driving Safety program at UC San Diego School of Medicine and Public Health) is doing research on pedestrian safety and has produced this video. - UC San Diego Health is working with the City of San Diego’s
Vision Zero Pedestrian Safety committee, providing data to support changes to make streets and sidewalks safer for pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorized vehicles.
For more information about our prevention programs, email Trauma Prevention and Outreach at
leherman@health.ucsd.edu.