Pittsburgh Surgical Outcomes Research Center
Transforming the conduct of clinical research

Global Health

INJURY SUPPORT INITIATIVE FOR GUATEMALA TRAUMA (INSIGHT)

Traumatic injury is now a major burden on the health of the Guatemalan people. Interpersonal violence is the second leading cause of Disability-adjusted Life Years (DALYs) in Guatemala, and homicide, suicide, conflict and unintentional injuries account for an estimated 900 thousand years of life lost due to premature mortality. There is a need to understand the impact of trauma in Guatemala and to create targeted health policy initiatives to relieve this burden on the health of the country.

Impact of the Geographic Organization of Trauma System Resources on Under-triage in Rural versus Urban Motor Vehicle Collisions

Trauma is a time-sensitive disease and rapid access to definitive care is critical. However, access to trauma care is not geographically uniform in the US. Patients injured in rural areas have worse outcomes than those injured in urban areas. The mechanisms leading to this disparity remain unclear. Under-triage may play are role which occurs when patients with serious injuries are taken to non-trauma centers. Patients who are first transported to a non-trauma center and then transferred later to a trauma center have higher mortality than those taken initially to a trauma center.

COVID-19: Surgical Implications Study

We will be collaborating on a GlobalSurg project [https://globalsurg.org/] on COVID19, which will be open to ALL centers worldwide who have COVID+ patients requiring an operation. This project is extremely important to get the data out there on how each hospital is managing these novel cases, surgeons around the world stand to benefit from this.