Now that I have your attention with my alliterative title, I wanted to draw your attention to a review article in The New England Journal of Medicine.

This year readers of the Injury Prevention blog have been invited to read further regarding injuries arising from such mechanisms as gun violence, transportation, and domestic violence. The review article succinctly explores the burden of injury more broadly, considering both intentional and unintentional injuries. The enormous projected burden of these injuries is highlighted, particularly as a result of road crashes and self-harm.

The Authors next address injury prevention, emphasising the need for both legislative and non-legislative approaches to the problem. This is followed by a discussion of what is needed to minimise the impact and extent of these injuries – a very interesting read indeed for a road safety researcher such as myself.

The Authors conclude with “The Way Forward”,  in which they suggest the next steps needed in injury prevention and remediation. Again the theme of inaccurate and incomplete data rears its ugly head, a pervasive problem about which I have previously blogged. Notwithstanding the innumerable issues associated with such data deficiencies, at the most basic level is the need to adequately represent the magnitude of an injury problem as a vital first step in securing research and intervention funds to address the injury problem.

I recommend you read more at http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMra1109343.