Injury Surveillance

West Virginia continues to lead the nation in drug overdose deaths per capita. In 2016, the age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths was 52 per 100,0001. In the same year, there were roughly 64,000 overdose deaths in the United States, a 21.5% rate increase from 20151. The drug overdose epidemic in West Virginia has taken a significant toll on individuals, families, communities, and resources. As part of a rapid response plan to help reduce the burden of overdose deaths, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources conducted an investigative report to study 830 overdose related deaths that occurred in 2016 and identify opportunities for intervention in the 12 months prior to death. Utilization of EMS among decedents was analyzed to determine demographic differences between decedents at different time points of EMS contact: EMS contact at death only; EMS contact 12 months prior to death only; and both EMS contact at death and 12 months prior to death.

Objective: Opioid and illicit substance abuse continues to have major public health implications in the state of West Virginia. By analyzing the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) utilization history of drug overdose decedents, opportunities to improve surveillance of fatal and non-fatal drug overdoses can be identified which can help lead prevention efforts of fatal drug overdoses in the state.

Although sexual violence is a pressing public health and safety issue, it has historically been challenging to monitor population trends with precision. Approximately 31% of incidents of sexual violence are reported to law enforcement and only 5% lead to an arrest1, making the use of law enforcement data challenging. Syndromic surveillance data from emergency departments provides an opportunity to use care-seeking to more accurately surveil sexual violence without introducing additional burdens on either patients or healthcare providers.

Objective: To describe characteristics of sexual violence emergency department visits in Washington State.

Over the last few decades, the United States has made considerable progress in decreasing the incidence of motor vehicle occupants injured and killed in traffic collisions.1 However, there is still a need for continued motor vehicle crash (MVC) injury surveillance, particularly for vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians and bicyclists. In NC, the average annual number of pedestrian-motor vehicle crashes increased by 13.5 percent during the period 2011-2015, as compared to 2006-2010.2 Therefore, the Carolina Center for Health Informatics (CCHI), as part of a NC Governor's Highway Safety Program-funded project to improve statewide MVC injury surveillance, developed and evaluated four ICD-10-CM based case definitions for use with NC DETECT, NC's statewide syndromic surveillance system.

Objective: To evaluate four ICD-10-CM based case definitions designed to capture pedestrian and bicycle crash-related emergency department (ED) visits in North Carolina's statewide syndromic surveillance system, NC DETECT.

Although heat illness is preventable, it is a leading cause of death among U.S. high school and college athletes (1). Despite this, the total burden of heat illness during sports and recreation is unknown. With over 250 million U.S. residents reporting occasional participation in sports or recreational activities (2), there is a large population at risk.

Objective

To examine the incidence and characteristics of heat illness during sports and recreation.