A NW Tribal EpiCenter Collaboration to Improve the Use of Motor Vehicle Injury Data

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Abstract American Indians and Alaska Natives(AI/AN) are disproportionately affected by motor vehicle injuries and fatalities. As sovereign nations, tribes are often responsible for policies, practices, and infrastructure improvements to address these problems. The Northwest Tribal Epidemiology Center (The EpiCenter) is tasked with responding to the data needs of the 43 NW Tribes, including motor vehicle injury related information. While The EpiCenter does provide state- specific AI/AN fatality data and hospital discharge injury data, tribes have repeatedly requested local injury data, as well as crash data to inform decision-making. We initiate this proposal in response to these requests and needs of the tribes. We plan to use race-corrected data sources we have in-house at the EpiCenter – death certificates, hospital discharge data and trauma registries – to evaluate the magnitude of the MV injury disparity and to report and map injury data to as local of level as possible. We will also utilize other data sources that are not race corrected, including Fatality Analysis Reporting System, and syndromic surveillance data (near real-time clinical data from Emergency Departments, urgent care facilities and other medical clinics) to illuminate injury severity and understand crash-related factors. We will undertake quality improvement of these data as necessary. We will complement these quantitative data with qualitative data to help us understand the context of the problem, identify where tribes need increased capacity, and to paint a more complete picture of AI/AN motor vehicle injuries and deaths. Because motor vehicle injuries fall under the scope of work of several different departments – planning, law enforcement, transportation, policy and health – information and the use of data can be disjointed. This proposal will bring together experts from these fields to respond to the data, identify and assist in quality improvement efforts, and ensure that analyses and reports are useful to decision-makers in various capacities.