title: Creating a National Violent Death Reporting System: a successful beginning.
abstract: Following the urgings of many advocates, an IOM report in 1999 called for a national data system on violent death, modeled after that existing for motor-vehicle crashes. The National Violent Death Reporting System now provides rich data on the circumstances of violent deaths in the U.S.; it is the first national system to collect in-depth information on suicides. In November 2008, the system went online (www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars/), making data from 17 states available to researchers and the general public. The successful development of this system was the result of a 10-year effort begun with the support of a half-dozen foundations. Key components of the success included a high-quality pilot version of the system and the mobilization of a large, bipartisan coalition of individuals, institutions, and agencies that advocated for federal funding for the system.
authors.affiliation: Harvard Injury Control Research Center, Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. hemenway@hsph.harvard.edu
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hemenway
authors.forename: Catherine W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Barber
authors.forename: Susan S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Gallagher
authors.forename: Deborah R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Azrael
mesh_terms: D002423:Cause of Death; D005260:Female; D006708:Homicide; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008498:Medical Record Linkage; D009026:Mortality; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D013405:Suicide; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014754:Violence; D014948:Wounds, Gunshot / Q000401:mortality