My Fellowship in Trauma and Injury Prevention Research
I was a little apprehensive when I first learnt that I would be HMDPing in Wisconsin , USA . The only thing I knew then about Milwaukee ( where my hospital is located ) was that it is the setting for famous 70's sitcoms “ Laverne & Shirley” and “ Happy Days” . I also knew that it is in the mid-west, where you may very well come home from work and find your house blown away by a tornado, and where the winters are bitterly cold (a la “ Fargo” ). However, I was reassured that my destination, The Injury Research Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin (IRC-MCW), is a top-notch Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-funded facility, and the Froedtert Hospital and Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, where I would do my clinical attachment, were nationally recognized centers for Emergency Residency training. But most importantly, I would be returning to Singapore before Winter truly set in!
The IRC-MCW comprise specialists from Emergency Medicine, Trauma & Neurosurgery and Rehab, backed by epidemiologists and biostatisticians. I benefited greatly from rubbing shoulders with these experts while mining their excellent motor vehicle crash database and witnessing how injury research data gets translated into public education, advocacy and eventually, policy change. I also met with staff at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in Washington D.C. which runs the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) - a database of all fatal motor vehicle crashes in the country - and implements all federal highway safety initiatives.
Back at the IRC-MCW, it was great fun watching perfectly good cars with crash test dummies inside get smashed up in the biomechanical lab, all in the name of studying the interaction between different crash configurations, restraint systems and injury patterns. I sat in on Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network (CIREN) meetings where, in "CSI" fashion, a motor vehicle crash gets reconstructed and every single injury sustained by the occupant(s) analyzed in order to identify failure in vehicle design and safety. In order to appreciate the patient care continuum from scene of crash to the emergency department, I got to ride and fly with the emergency medical services.
One cloudy day in
August, I discovered to my amusement that the reason for my uncharacteristic
motion sickness while aboard the Flight-For-Life helicopter was because 28
tornadoes had touched down just 2 counties south of us! I feel that for
Singapore to make any in-roads in the field of injury prevention research,
we, as emergency physicians, need to engage the cooperation of other
specialties and stake-holders like policy makers and insurance companies;
and we need a comprehensive national trauma database. My wife and I
discovered to our delight that we were never short of things to do or see in
Milwaukee, what with the constant stream of summer festivals, touring bands,
growling Hogs ( the Harley Davidson originated in Wisconsin) and
free-flowing Miller Beer (a local brew). The boundless countryside offers
limitless potential for weekend getaways and autumn brings on an explosion
of fall colors that rival those in New England .
The social and academic cultures at the medical college
are also inspiring – clinicians are allocated protected time to teach and do
research, yet lead balanced family lives. Weekends here are truly considered
sacred!
Kenneth Heng