Injury is the leading cause of death in person under 45 years of age and a major cause of morbidity and mortality for Americans of all ages, regardless of gender, race or economic status. For many victims of injury, there are long-term complications that lead to disability and chronic pain. Like diseases, injuries are preventable and scientific methods can be used to identify risk factors to prevent injuries and clinical predictors of the immediate and long-term complications of injuries. Unfortunately, physicians receive little formal injury prevention training. For example, over one million Americans sustain mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) each year. Many of these victims develop long-term neuropsychological complications and have difficulty returning to school, work, or daily living activities, demonstrating that mild TBI is a public health problem of enormous magnitude. Yet most emergency physicians do not know that early neuropsychological intervention can mitigate these long-term complications and subsequently fail to arrange proper follow up assessment. The goal of this research project is to improve our understanding of the risk factors and clinical predictors for intentional and unintentional injuries to prevent significant premature death and disability in both children and adults. Dr. Kyriacou is currently conducting several clinical and epidemiological research projects in the areas of primary and secondary intentional and unintentional injury prevention. |
