“Too often, racial, economic, or geographic inequities make it difficult for trauma patients to access the care they need. The Stepping Strong Injury Prevention program seeks to eliminate barriers, so EVERY person has a chance to turn their personal tragedy into hope.” — Molly Jarman, PhD, MPH
The mission of the Stepping Strong Injury Prevention Program is to reduce the burden of injury by advancing evidence-based prevention activities through community outreach, research of best practices, and training of healthcare professionals at the Brigham and beyond.
Traumatic injury is one of the most under-recognized—yet pervasive—medical challenges in the nation. Because it affects all ages, its impact on life years lost is equal to that of cancer, heart disease, and HIV combined.
Recognizing that the only way to truly eliminate the burden of injury is to prevent injuries from ever occurring, The Gillian Reny Stepping Strong Center for Trauma Innovation is deeply committed to tackling this significant public health issue.
Under the direction of Ali Salim, MD, and Molly Jarman, PhD, MPH, the Stepping Strong Injury Prevention Program brings together clinicians, scientists, public health practitioners, and community partners from across the Greater Boston area to reduce the number and severity of traumatic injuries. Our program is uniquely positioned to become a national leader in this critical work. Here’s how:
- By conducting world class, multidisciplinary research on the causes, outcomes, and prevention of injuries;
- By putting research into action via community outreach and supporting the implementation of evidence-based prevention strategies; and
- By training and educating current and future health professionals to advance research, address new problems, and reach diverse populations
Research is critical to discovering innovative solutions to prevent the incidence and improve the consequences of injuries. We research cutting-edge interventions, evaluate injury prevention programs, and fund multidisciplinary projects to implement best practices to prevent injuries.
Through our outreach activities, we seek to empower citizens and give them the tools to live a life exempt from the burden of injuries. Outreach also lets us share evidenced-based injury prevention discoveries with community members and policymakers with a goal of translating research into practice.
Injury prevention is a multidisciplinary field requiring collaboration between clinicians, public health practitioners, researchers, and community organizations. The program offers education and training opportunities that are designed to connect clinical and public health domains at all career levels.
Brigham and Women’s Hospital has many established injury prevention efforts.
The Stepping Strong Injury Prevention program is proud to serve as a shared resource for these efforts by collaborating with community-based organizations, hosting quarterly Lunch and Learn programs, providing suicide prevention trainings, and much more. Our goal with these initiatives is threefold:
- Creating innovative, high impact, evidence-based injury prevention interventions
- Developing injury prevention expertise within the healthcare workforce
- Supporting community-based injury prevention efforts in the Greater Boston area
Our approach to injury prevention is modeled after the Centers for Disease Control framework. We believe all injuries are preventable through a multidisciplinary approach that includes research, education, engineering, and policy change.
The Stepping Strong Injury Prevention community includes experts spanning the fields of public health, medicine, surgery, social work, psychology, and patient advocacy. Our program addresses, but is not limited to, the following five focus areas:
- Falls Preventions
- Violence Prevention
- Long-Term Post-Injury Outcomes
- Traffic Safety
- Substance Use Prevention