UK HealthCare

KIPRC Reflects on 20 Years Improving Safety and Health for Kentuckians

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 22, 2015) — The Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center (KIPRC), a collaboration of the University of Kentucky and the Kentucky Department for Public Health, commemorates 20 years of work to reduce the burden of injury and violence across the state in October.

KIPRC, approved by the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees as a multidisciplinary center, merges academic research and public health outreach efforts to reduce the incidence and prevalence of intentional and unintentional injury and death in Kentucky through education, data surveillance, strategic partnerships, health interventions, policy initiatives and public health programming. Research programs address public health issues pertinent to Kentuckians, including drug overdose, motor vehicle safety, pediatric and adolescent injuries, trauma, fire hazards, community safety and more.

Through its function of obtaining injury data, KIPRC has played a critical role informing the planning and implementation of public health initiatives and legislation at the state and county level. The following are highlights of KIPRC's achievements in past 20 years.

·      Marking one of the center’s first major achievements, KIPRC faculty collaborated with legislators to craft and advocate for a statewide Child Fatality Review process. The Kentucky Department for Public Health established the State Child Fatality Review Team in 1996.

·      Focusing on the dangers of Kentucky’s roadways, KIPRC has served as a source of data and expert insight to direct legislation regarding child passenger safety and adolescent driving. KIPRC conducted one of the nation’s first child restraint misuse studies. Evaluation of crash reductions from the initial (two-phase) Graduated Drivers Licensing process led to recommendations for safer teen driving which were enacted in the current three phase system for teen drivers. In 2015, thanks to efforts of child safety advocates at KIPRC, Gov. Steve Beshear signed the revised booster seat bill, or House Bill 315, into law.  

·      Since 2003, KIPRC has developed 13 injury related web-based training courses that have been completed by over 100,000 professionals.

·      KIPRC partnered with UK HealthCare and the UK College of Agriculture to promote equestrian safety during the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in 2010.

·      In 2012, KIPRC and statewide stakeholders championed a comprehensive prescription drug abuse prevention law enacted by the state legislature through the provision of relevant data results. The law included prescription drug monitoring program querying and controlled substance prescriber guidelines, and mandated physician ownership of pain management clinics.      

·      KIPRC’s research into the development of a statewide trauma reporting system resulted in the enactment of legislation to develop the Kentucky Trauma Registry, a repository of trauma information from 21 facilities across the state.

·      In 2012, KIPRC was designated a Safe Community Affiliate Support Center and received a contract to promote the designation of 50 percent of Kentucky’s population as living in official Safe Community by 2017. The University of Kentucky and Lexington announced plans to apply for accreditation as official Safe Communities in 2015.

·      KIPRC’s occupational motor vehicle driver fatality investigations have resulted in a number of company procedural changes and equipment redesign.

·      In the past 16 years, a residential fire prevention program coordinated by KIPRC has resulted in the installation of more than 25,000 smoke alarms and saved nearly 100 lives.

 

·      KIPRC faculty members and faculty affiliates have collaborated on many interdisciplinary injury prevention research studies, with more than 380 peer-reviewed manuscripts published in journals to date. Approximately 40 University of Kentucky master’s and doctoral students have completed a thesis or dissertation with an injury prevention focus since 2010.

 

“KIPRC has brought together violence and injury prevention community practice and academic research through targeted interventions, multidisciplinary research and informed policymaking,” Terry Bunn, director of KIPRC, said. “Our accomplishments in the last 20 years represent the collaborative efforts of many individuals and groups dedicated to making Kentucky a safer place to live and work.”

For more information about the work of KIPRC, visit http://www.mc.uky.edu/kiprc/.

MEDIA CONTACT: Elizabeth Adams, elizabethadams@ukyedu