Injuries from external causes: progress in data management, analysis, and patient care.

recent years, it has become increasingly more common to find that the declarations , resolutions, and documents of various organizations contain an appeal to improve, update, and develop valid, timely, useful, and representative information on external causes of injury (ECI). Almost all of the United Nations' specialized agencies, including its General Assembly, have underscored its importance with the same urgency. One key example is the report of the World Health Organization (WHO) on violence and health, which takes a public health approach to violence prevention, examining violence's forms, magnitude, risk factors, and affected population groups, by age and gender. In addition, this 2002 report outlines nine recommendations for the various sectors charged with violence prevention and control, and has guidelines for use at the national and international levels (1). Other key documents are the WHO and World Bank joint report on road traffic injury, published in 2004, which underscores the need to carry out scientifically-validated interventions aimed at roadway users, vehicles, and the environment (2); and the United Nations Secretary General 2006 report on violence against women, which spotlights this type of violence as a form of discrimination and a violation of human rights (3). Moreover, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) 2006 report on violence against children constitutes the first global study of this problem. The report—produced with input from boys, girls, and teens—concludes that countries simply do not possess enough consolidated data regarding violence against children, which requires information that is basic, timely, and must be disaggregated by sex, age, ethnicity, geographic location, etc. (4). All the documents stress the magnitude and severity of the problem and emphasize the need to improve data available on injuries, be they intentional (violent) or unintentional (accidental). In the Region of the Americas, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the United States of America, among other health organizations, have understood the challenge and have taken action in this regard. This state of affairs is due to inconsistency and a lack of standards in the data that traditionally has been managed by the groups charged with compiling and analyzing information on deaths by homicide, suicide, domestic violence, traffic accidents, fire, drowning, poisoning, and others. The same is true in cases of nonfatal sexual assaults, violence against women, child abuse, and other injuries that affect the health and lives of the individuals directly involved, …