title: The 2014 Academic College of Emergency Experts in India's INDO-US Joint Working Group (JWG) White Paper on "Developing Trauma Sciences and Injury Care in India".
abstract: It is encouraging to see the much needed shift in the understanding and recognition of the concept of "burden of disease" in the context of traumatic injury. Equally important is understanding that the impact of trauma burden rivals that of nontraumatic morbidities. Subsequently, this paradigm shift reinstates the appeal for timely interventions as the standard for management of traumatic emergencies. Emergency trauma care in India has been disorganized due to inadequate sensitivity toward patients affected by trauma as well as the haphazard, nonuniform acceptance of standardization as the norm. Some of the major hospitals across various regions in the country do have trauma care units, but even those lack protocols to ensure that all trauma cases are handled by those units, largely owing to lack of structured referral system. As a first step to reform the state of trauma care in the country, a detailed overview is needed to gain insight into the prevailing reality. The objectives of this paper are to thus weave a foundation based on the statistical and qualitative burden of trauma in the country; the available infrastructure of trauma care centers equipped to deal with trauma; the need and scope of standardized protocols for intervention; and most importantly, the application of these in shaping educational initiatives in advancing emergency trauma care in the country.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine and Family Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India.
authors.forename: Ranabir
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pal
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuro Surgery, Narayana Medical College and Hospital, Chinthareddypalem, Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Amit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Agarwal
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Winter Haven Hospital, University of Florida, Florida, USA.
authors.forename: Sagar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Galwankar
authors.affiliation: Department of Trauma Surgery and Critical Care, Northwestern University, Chicago, USA.
authors.forename: Mamta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Swaroop
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Division of Trauma, Critical care, and Burns, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Ohio, USA.
authors.forename: Stanislaw P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Stawicki
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of South Florida, Florida, USA.
authors.forename: Laxminarayan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rajaram
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Suny Downstate Medical Center, Long Island College Hospital, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Lorenzo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Paladino
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Praveen
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Aggarwal
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Sanjeev
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bhoi
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, M M Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Mullana, Punjab, India.
authors.forename: Sankalp
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dwivedi
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Research (Ministry of Health and Family welfare), Division of Non-Communicable Diseases, Indian Council Of Medical Research, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Geetha
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Menon
authors.affiliation: Director of The All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Mc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Misra
authors.affiliation: University College of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Op
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kalra
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics, King George Medical University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Ajai
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Indira Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, Puducherry, India.
authors.forename: Angeline Neetha
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Radjou
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Administration, Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital, Pune, India.
authors.forename: Anuja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Joshi
keywords: Trauma; emergency medicine; trauma burden in India; trauma care centers