General Surgery Resident Peter Abraham, M.D., published “Evaluation of Injury Recidivism Using the Electronic Medical Record” in the Journal of Surgical Research.

According to the authors, injury recidivism is a term used to describe patients who survive initial traumatic injuries but then return to the emergency department with a repeat injury. Numerous studies have described trends in injury recidivism using trauma registry and survey data, but no prior study has leveraged electronic medical record (EMR) data to characterize injury recidivism.

In total, the study included 20,566 index encounters, and ultimately, the authors found that patients with assault injuries have the highest odds of injury recidivism and assault-related recidivistic encounters.

According to the study, these results demonstrate the feasibility and utility of incorporating EMR data, and suggest that the development of targeted interventions focused on mitigating assault injuries, such as hospital-based violence intervention programs, should be considered in our region.

“Research has shown that hospital-based violence intervention programs reduce injury recidivism and help patients recover from the emotional and physical toll of traumatic injuries,” said Abraham. “This study is important because it helps establish the need for a hospital-based violence intervention program here in Birmingham. The trauma department is actively partnering with groups focused on preventing and mitigating violence with the hopes of bringing such a program to our community.”

Other study authors included:

• Mackenzie Abraham M.D., General Surgery Resident
• Russell Griffin, Ph.D., Epidemiologist, Associate Professor
• Lauren Tanner, M.D., Chief of Emergency General Surgery Service
• Jan Jansen, MBBS, Ph.D., Director of Research and Associate Vice Chair for Clinical Trials

To read the entire study and its methods, click here.