RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Maximizing the potential of trauma registries in low-income and middle-income countries
JF Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open
JO Trauma Surg Acute Care Open
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP e000469
DO 10.1136/tsaco-2020-000469
VO 5
IS 1
A1 Leah Rosenkrantz
A1 Nadine Schuurman
A1 Claudia Arenas
A1 Andrew Nicol
A1 Morad S. Hameed
YR 2020
UL http://tsaco.bmj.com/content/5/1/e000469.abstract
AB Injury is a major global health issue, resulting in millions of deaths every year. For decades, trauma registries have been used in wealthier countries for injury surveillance and clinical governance, but their adoption has lagged in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). Paradoxically, LMICs face a disproportionately high burden of injury with few resources available to address this pandemic. Despite these resource constraints, several hospitals and regions in LMICs have managed to develop trauma registries to collect information related to the injury event, process of care, and outcome of the injured patient. While the implementation of these trauma registries is a positive step forward in addressing the injury burden in LMICs, numerous challenges still stand in the way of maximizing the potential of trauma registries to inform injury prevention, mitigation, and improve quality of trauma care. This paper outlines several of these challenges and identifies potential solutions that can be adopted to improve the functionality of trauma registries in resource-poor contexts. Increased recognition and support for trauma registry development and improvement in LMICs is critical to reducing the burden of injury in these settings.