NHTSA Administrator Announces New Crash Injury Research Center At Medical College of Wisconsin

NHTSA
October 25, 2001

NHTSA 56-01
October 25, 2001
Contact: Kathryn Henry
Telephone: 202-366-9550

MILWAUKEE - The administrator of the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Jeffrey W. Runge, M.D., joined by Wisconsin officials and Medical College of Wisconsin faculty and representatives of Froedtert Hospital, today announced the opening of the 10th national Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network (CIREN) center. The center at the Medical College of Wisconsin will further the study of real-world automobile crashes and their prevention, and will help improve the prognosis and treatment of crash trauma patients.

"Research into the injuries suffered by people in real world crashes is a vital component of our program to make vehicles safer," Dr. Runge said. "The CIREN trauma centers are in a unique position to carry out that detailed research. CIREN's expansion continues important efforts to prevent injuries on America's highways and underscores safety once again as President Bush's highest transportation priority."

The center, self-funded by the Medical College and its partner, Froedtert Hospital, will conduct basic and clinical research and use the new findings to develop strategies to reduce fatalities and injuries in automobile crashes. A key focus of CIREN is to provide feedback to the auto industry. By designing safer vehicles, manufacturers will be able to prevent or mitigate severe injuries to crash victims - people who wouldn't have lived a decade or more ago now survive crashes because of vehicle safety devices, such as air bags.

It will be the first self-funded center in the CIREN network. Seven receive federal funding from NHTSA and two others, one in Birmingham, AL and the other in Falls Church, VA, are privately funded by Mercedes-Benz and Ford respectively.

"The mission of the CIREN center epitomizes what we do at the Medical College," said T. Michael Bolher, J.D., President and Chief Executive Officer. "It is to teach and train doctors, create new knowledge, provide humane and expert patient care and leadership in health services. It also will forge local, regional, national and global partnerships in education, health care and research and be a national repository for biomechanics and biomedical research."

The Medical College of Wisconsin was chosen as a CIREN center because of its historical commitment, over two decades, to biomedical research, and its international reputation in biomechanics; the Level 1 Trauma Center of its primary adult and pediatric partners, Froedtert Hospital and Children's Hospital of Wisconsin; and its unparalleled impact testing facilities at the Veterans Medical Center in Milwaukee.

Created in 1996 by NHTSA, CIREN's mission is to reduce the severity of injuries and gain a better understanding of crash dynamics to reduce deaths, disabilities, and human and economic costs. A linked computer network allows all CIREN researchers to review crash and injury data and share their expertise.

NHTSA's nine other CIREN centers are the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, Baltimore; University of Medicine and Dentistry/New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ; Children's National Medical Center, Washington, DC.; Lehman Injury Research Center, University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami; University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor; Harborview Injury Prevention Center, Seattle; the San Diego County Trauma System, San Diego; the Mercedes-Benz CIREN Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham; and the Ford Inova Fairfax Hospital Center in Falls Church.

Research findings and other information on CIREN are on the Internet at http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/departments/nrd-50/ciren/ciren.html.

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