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Methods Inf Med 2015; 54(05): 474-476
DOI: 10.3414/ME15-05-1000
Original Articles
Schattauer GmbH

Road Traffic Related Injury Research and Informatics

New Opportunities for Biomedical and Health Informatics as a Contribution to the United Nations‘ Sustainable Development Goals?
N. Al-Shorbaji
1   Department of Knowledge, Ethics and Research, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
,
R. Haux
2   Peter L. Reichertz Institute for Medical Informatics, University of Braunschweig – Institute of Technology and Hannover Medical School, Braunschweig, Germany
,
R. Krishnamurthy
1   Department of Knowledge, Ethics and Research, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
,
M. Marschollek
2   Peter L. Reichertz Institute for Medical Informatics, University of Braunschweig – Institute of Technology and Hannover Medical School, Braunschweig, Germany
,
D. C. Mattfeld
3   Decision Support Group, University of Braunschweig – Institute of Technology, Braunschweig, Germany
,
K. Bartolomeos
4   Department for the Management of Noncommunicable Diseases, Disability, Violence and Injury Prevention, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
,
T. A. Reynolds
4   Department for the Management of Noncommunicable Diseases, Disability, Violence and Injury Prevention, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
› Author Affiliations
Further Information

Publication History

23 September 2015

Publication Date:
22 January 2018 (online)

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Summary

The United Nations has recently adopted 17 sustainable development goals for 2030, including ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages, and making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. Road injuries remain among the ten leading causes of death in the world, and are projected to increase with rapidly increasing motorisation globally. Lack of comprehensive data on road injuries has been identified as one of the barriers for effective implementation of proven road safety interventions. Building, linking and analysing electronic patient records in conjunction with establishing injury event and care registries can substantially contribute to healthy lives and safe transportation. Appropriate use of new technological approaches and health informatics best practices could provide significant added value to WHO’s global road safety work and assist Member States in identifying prevention targets, monitoring progress and improving quality of care to reduce injury-related deaths. This paper encourages the initiation of new multidisciplinary research at a global level.

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Keywords

Medical informatics - biomedical informatics - health informatics - accident research - injury research - multidisciplinary research