The Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network, or CIREN links seven trauma centers from around the country together with engineers to study the cause, kinematics, and results of real world crashes. Each trauma center has a multidisciplinary team of physicians, medical researchers, safety engineers, crash reconstructionist, public safety professions, and others who review the crash and the patients. The network includes trauma centres in San Diego, Seattle, Newark, Baltimore, Miami, Washington and Ann Arbor. General Motors funds three of these centers. A high-speed computer network will soon link the seven centers. This state of the art teleconferencing system will allow on-line multidisciplinary analyses of crashes to be performed by personnel from the trauma centers, manufacturers and government agencies. The first national conference was held last October in Ann Arbor. This research will hopefully aid the auto industry to continuously design safer cars. It is already helping the medical community, doctors and Emergency Medical Services personnel, to develop new diagnostic and treatment tools. (A)
Abstract