there are proprietary and search-fee considerations for some of these databases, at a minimum, links to the databases have to be forged.

Problems in the communication of research significantly inhibit opportunities for cross-fertilization, collaboration, and growth of the field. The committee encourages the creation of an organization of injury prevention researchers, analogous to scientific organizations that have emerged in other interdisciplinary areas (e.g., College of Problems of Drug Dependence). Such an organization could sponsor annual research conferences, where injury researchers would present the results of new and encouraging research, and could support the development of an injury prevention research journal and electronic networks and work to solve the problems associated with database linkages. A new organization would have far-reaching effects in mobilizing injury prevention researchers.

Scientific inquiry has transformed our notions of injury from accidental, unavoidable occurrences to events that are predictable and amenable to prevention. The development of future prevention interventions to address injury and the evaluation of the success of these interventions require a national commitment to expanding the scientific foundation for injury prevention. Support for injury prevention research should be commensurate with the enormous toll of injury on society. In particular, biomechanics, residential and recreational injuries, suicide, and violence are areas of research in need of higher priority. A national, long-term commitment to the expansion of interdisciplinary research and training in injury prevention is essential to public health. Without this commitment, injury research will not achieve the sophistication necessary for effective intervention development; talented new researchers will not be attracted to the field; and existing injury researchers may be forced to leave the field. In short, without a national commitment, the field of injury science will stagnate and the unnecessary toll of injury will persist.

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