Positioning public health surveillance for observational studies and clinical trials: The St. Louis region-wide hospital-based violence intervention program data repository

• Published in: Contemporary clinical trials communications Vol. 21; p. 100683
• Main Authors: Mueller, Kristen L., Trolard, Anne, Moran, Vicki, Landman, Joshua M., Foraker, Randi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier Inc 01.03.2021; Elsevier
• Subjects: Data repository; Firearm injury; Injury prevention; Public health; Injury prevention; Firearm injury; Data repository; Public health
• ISSN: 2451-8654; 2451-8654
• DOI: 10.1016/j.conctc.2020.100683

Firearm injuries are a public health epidemic in the United States, yet a comprehensive national database for patients with firearm injuries does not exist. Here we describe the methods for a study to develop and query a new regional database of all patients who present to a St. Louis level I trauma hospital with a violent injury, the St. Louis Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Program Data Repository (STL-HVIP-DR). We hypothesize that the STL-HVIP-DR will facilitate identification of patients at risk for violent injury and serve as a comparison population for participants enrolled in clinical trials. The STL-HVIP-DR includes all visits made for violent injury to four level I trauma hospitals in St. Louis, Missouri between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2019. Two health systems representing the four participating hospitals executed a data sharing agreement to aggregate clinical data on firearm injuries, stabbings, and blunt assaults. Dataset variables include demographic hospital and timestamp, medical, and insurance information. A preliminary cross-sectional query of the STL-HVIP-DR reveals 121,955 patient visits among the four partner level I trauma hospitals for a violent injury between 2010 and 2019. This includes over 18,000 patient visits for firearm injury. The STL-HVIP-DR repository fills a critical gap regarding identification and outcomes among individuals who are violently injured, especially those with non-lethal firearm injuries. It is our hope that the methods presented in this paper will serve as a primer to develop repositories to help target violence prevention services in other regions. •Firearm injuries are a public health epidemic in the United States.•Data repositories for violent injury may help track firearm injury and recidivism.•Here we describe the methods to develop a novel data repository for violent injury.•These data have the potential to identify patients at risk for violent injury.•These data can be applied for resource allocation of violence prevention services.