CE24-001, The Penn Injury Science Center

University Of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA

Investigators

Abstract

The Penn Injury Science Center (PISC) will build on its past successes as an injury control research center (ICRC) at the University of Pennsylvania to advance our mission of reducing injuries and violence across the lifespan through equity-centered, actionable science, outreach, and education. The PISC is evolving and progressing to specifically focus on the integrated application of research, training and education, and outreach to improve the lives of the populations disproportionately affected by violence and injury. We recognize that the injuries we study are not distributed equally across populations; historic disinvestment and other forms of structural racism have led to marked disparities that catalyze, moderate, or mitigate the incidence of injury, access to prevention and treatment, and ability to recover. In this next cycle as an ICRC, we will continue partnering with Black and Brown communities in which the PISC is situated to conduct local, actionable injury science that prioritizes public health equity and addresses the social and structural conditions that contribute to the burden of violence and injury these communities experience. The PISC’s outward-facing slogan of Stop It, Fix It, Live On aligns with our mission of empowering community-research partnerships to address primary (Stop the event), secondary (Fix the causes of the event), and tertiary (Live On in a context of safety rather than risk) injury and violence prevention goals. The PISC is organized around three Cores (Administrative, Outreach, Training & Education), essential Special Advisors (Equity and Academic-City partnerships), integration with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and three advisory boards (Institutional Advisory Board, External Advisory Board, and Community Action Board) as well as four embedded Research Projects and new research development efforts. Our four Research Projects address some of the most salient injury problems: cross-cutting violence prevention, drug overdose and adverse childhood experiences. Across the PISC we have prioritized diversity in leadership from underrepresented groups in our proposed Cores and Projects, as well as mentoring of developing injury researchers from diverse backgrounds and disciplines to become scientific and programmatic leaders. By being the hub for injury science in our University and City, our innovative approaches in the bidirectional research-practice-policy exchange will enhance the highest caliber research, disseminate findings, implement new practices, promote sustainable outreach activities, and train the next generation of injury scientists to maximize the impact of our work for equitable outcomes in disproportionately affected populations.