University of California - San Francisco
M. Margaret Knudson, MD
Phone: 415-206-4623
Fax: 415-206-5484
E-mail:
pknudson@sfghsurg.ucsf.edu
San Francisco General Hospital
Department of Surgery, 3A
1001 Potrero Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94110
Overview
The San Francisco Injury Center for Research and Prevention (SFIC) is distinguished by having acute care research as its major focus, while maintaining prominent activities in injury surveillance and injury prevention. The San Francisco General Hospital (SFIC) is located at the SFGH campus of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), adjacent to the SFGH Trauma Center, one of the first Level I trauma centers in the country. The daily interaction with a large number of severely injured patients admitted to the Trauma Center serves as the impetus for the SFIC investigators to continually re-evaluate methods of treating injuries, and to remain committed to injury prevention. In 1996, with a new administration for the SFIC within the UCSF Department of Surgery and the initiation of a new Surgical Research Center at SFGH, the SFIC expanded its acute care research objectives, while continuing its activities in injury prevention through a subcontract with the Trauma Foundation, a 15-year-old private, non-profit prevention agency also located on the SFGH campus.
The two major objectives for the SFIC are to
- conduct research in the five phases of acute care management: prehospital, initial resuscitation, definitive surgical care, critical care, and acute rehabilitation
- continue activities and collaborations in injury prevention.
The specific aims for research, which are designed to parallel the five phases of acute injury management, are
- examine the effect of prehospital hypoxia and hypotension on outcome following brain injury
- investigate surgeons' use of ultrasound in the initial evaluation of injured patients
- study the use of tissue oxygen measurements and cardiopulmonary bypass during resuscitation from hemorrhagic shock
- describe inflammatory markers and clinical indicators in acute lung injury
- determine the effectiveness of psychological interventions in reducing stress symptoms following pediatric trauma.
Prevention activities include
- continued development of the Trauma Foundation's Injury Prevention Library and the Injury Prevention Network Review
- improvement of injury surveillance through standardization and analysis of injury data codes for external cause
- committee and consultative activities in the injury field
- promotion of educational activities in injury control
- linkage of acute care research with local and national violence prevention efforts.
Projects