• leadership

Who should be the leaders in injury prevention and control? The purpose of this opinion piece is to suggest that the public health trained physician is uniquely qualified and can and should take a leadership role in injury prevention. Debate and discussion are welcomed. If there are other means that continued leadership can be generated in injury prevention and control, let us hear them. This opinion is not intended to create a sense of territorial ownership, but to emphasize the knowledge, skills, and experience of the public health trained physician and the benefit of their involvement as an enabling person in injury prevention and control.

The public health physician has training in epidemiology and in assessing the health of population groups—in contrast to the focus on the health of individuals or parts of individuals (like hearts or kidneys), which is the training of many physicians and health professionals. The focus on population groups means there is understanding of the benefits of surveillance and a constant emphasis on prevention and control measures including health promotion. The population approach in recent years has increasingly emphasized the variations in health, disease, and injury between population groups. It also emphasises the effects of the social determinants of health outside the health care delivery system such as education, poverty, employment, and early childhood development that influence a public health issue. He/she has knowledge of the health care system …