Injury surveillance and the emergency physician

Injury surveillance systems are used to describe the burden of injuries, to document specific patterns of injuries, to identify emerging hazards, and to evaluate the effectiveness of prevention strategies. Pediatric emergency medicine practitioners use and participate in injury surveillance systems. The purpose of this article is to review the principles of injury surveillance as applied to pediatric emergency medicine, to highlight the roles and responsibilities of practitioners in injury surveillance, and to provide opportunities for readers to explore current data and injury surveillance systems using online resources and examples from the literature.