Objective Remarkable amount of injuries among older people takes place in Finland every year. However, systematic injury registration is lacking. Injuries cause suffering for victims and remarkable costs for the society. One goal of the Finnish Centre for Injury and Violence Prevention was to create a web-based application for recording and monitoring injury data in order to use the data for injury prevention.

Material and Methods Databases for injuries taking place among older people in hospital inpatient care and institutional care, in municipal home-care as well as in municipal and private residential care were planned with the professionals of elderly care. Consequently, in cooperation with a Finnish software company, TAPE software was developed. TAPE was adopted gradually in 2006. Details on injuries and injury related factors are prospectively recorded by the staffs. TAPE data reporting is in real time: all the recorded injury data can be viewed immediately as graphs.

Results TAPE is in active use in the units of elderly care. So far, around 6500 injuries have been recorded and several injury hazards recognised by the TAPE software. On the basis of TAPE data, preventive interventions have been implemented in facilities.

Discussion The main purpose of TAPE software is to use it for injury prevention as near as possible to the scene. However, it is a tool for safety management and promotion for those in charge, as well. The feedback received from the software users is important and it is used for the further development and improvement of the tool.