News and notes
PEOPLE IN THE NEWS
The US Institute of Medicine of the National Academies has named seven behavioral scientists and health professionals as Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellows for 2003–04 including Injury Prevention Associate Editor Susan Gallagher. Susan is Senior Scientist and Associate Director, Center for Injury and Violence Prevention, Education Development Center, Inc, Health and Human Development Programs, Newton, Massachusetts. The fellows—outstanding, mid-career scientists and health professionals working in academic and community based settings—were chosen on a competitive basis from nominations by academic institutions, as well as by organized health care delivery systems and other community based providers. The fellows will complete a wide range of activities designed to enrich their knowledge of the public policy process and foster a better understanding of how government health and biomedical research activities relate to the mission of their home institutions and local communities. After a period of orientation, each fellow will work in legislative or executive branch offices with key responsibilities for health legislation and programs.
UK INJURY SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM CLOSING
The Department of Trade and Industry is, according to its press release, “refocusing its strategic priorities in relation to the provision of statistics”. In other words, the UK’s long established home and leisure injury surveillance systems, HASS and LASS, are being closed down. Data for 2000, 2001, and 2002 from the 18 sentinel hospitals will be added to the database during 2003, computing problems having dogged the system for three years. The inquiry service will be phased out in the autumn of 2003. Consumer Affairs Minster Melanie Johnson said that her department remained committed to ensuring that products in the UK are safe and would continue to have a key role in setting the regulatory framework around product safety. The closure is reportedly because of financial pressures and the work by the Department of Health to improve the local …
