Feb 16, 2017, 14:00 PM
by
Grace Whittington
In the United States, traumatic injury is a major threat to public health. For every war-related casualty, there are hundreds of trauma patients in civilian life. To combat this alarming issue, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine was asked to convene a committee to study and evaluate the progress toward better trauma care and outcomes.
The resulting report, A National Trauma Care System: Integrating Military and Civilian Trauma Systems to Achieve Zero Preventable Deaths After Injury, was published in June 2016 by the Health and Medicine Division (formally the Institute of Medicine (IOM)). The report presents a vision for a national trauma care system and seeks White House involvement in setting a national aim by achieving zero preventable deaths after injury and minimizing trauma-related disability.
We connected with Peter Thomas, Principal of Powers Pyles Sutter & Verville PC, a Washington, D.C.-based law firm with a strong focus on health care law and health care policy, with whom the Academy has been working for approximately 30 years. Peter recently attended a meeting about this report and shared his insights and takeaways
with us.
Read the February issue of The Physiatrist for the full interview.