Max Brondfield Wins First Prize for Presentation at XXVIII Panamerican Trauma Congress
Max Brondfield, UCSF School of Medicine ’16, won first prize for his oral presentation in the student category at the XXVIII Panamerican Trauma Congress in Santa Cruz, Bolivia this past November. The Panamerican Trauma Society seeks to encourage the exchange of knowledge and information between and among physicians, nurses, prehospital providers, and other healthcare personnel who take care of injured patients in North, Central, and South America.
Using 2013 data from an urban Level 1 trauma center, Brondfield modeled rates of trauma at the individual and census tract level to understand the role of alcohol outlets relative to socioeconomic factors thought to influence injury. He projected injury event and alcohol outlet data onto a map of census tracts, which was then stratified according to age, intentionality, and blood alcohol level screening.
Positive blood alcohol levels were associated with higher injury severity score among trauma victims. At the census tract level, density of off-sale alcohol outlets per capital was the strongest correlated variable with all traumas and those for which blood alcohol level was elevated on admission. Violent trauma showed the strongest association with on-sale alcohol outlets per capita. Results of this study may inform policy measures to prevent trauma and create a safer urban environment.