Current Developments on Traffic Medicine

Abstract

Traffic medicine is a multidisciplinary and comprehensive subject pertaining to the development of traffic injury and is a subject of science and technology which studies the generation rules, preventions and treatments of traffic injuries. The disciplines contributing to traffic medicine include psychology, sociology, statistics, engineering, biomechanics, law, policing, policy analysis, pharmacology, emergency medicine, surgery, as well as rehabilitation medicine and much more. This chapter mainly shows the development of traffic medicine as below. (1) A good road safety strategy is the primary key for traffic safety. WHO calls countries to have their own road traffic safety strategies to control their traffic injuries and to make safer roads. To achieve safety strategies, countries need continuously to perfect road traffic safety laws and regulations, to provide safer roads and vehicles, to guide road user with safe behavior, and to provide efficient emergence system and medical care standards for the traffic injuries. (2) The study on epidemiology is a very important basis of looking for effective and targeted countermeasures on traffic injury control and prevention. The big data mining is an innovative and effective strategy for traffic safety. The cores of the big data are data integration, data link construct, data mining and service. (3) Traffic injury is the leading cause of death for children under the age of 19 in the world. Many projects which are driven by science studies, involving innovative behavior psychology—social theory and technologies, hierarchical school educations and multi-level implementation have effectively reduced child traffic injuries. (4) More and more studies focus on diseases and sickness, medicines and chemical reagents that may involve in traffic accidents, such as: attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obstructive sleep apnoea, morbid obesity, dementia, after stroke, hearing impairment, epilepsy, hypoglycemia, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), pregnancy, etc. (5) The performance and distinct biosocial profiles of high-risk drivers (HRDs) were studied by means of some new technologies, such as in vehicle driver monitoring system and medical-psychological assessment (MPA) system, and some positive results have achieved. (6) In recent years, forensic medicine of traffic injury has combined with more factors of clinic medicine, social psychology, vehicles, road and road users. (7) A high-efficiency medical rescue and care system could minimize potentially avoidable the deaths and the disabled caused by traffic injury. An effective medical rescue and care system should include an effective and efficient communication network, transport vehicles, pre-hospital care providers, emergency department, ICU, specialized department, and effective medical care standards. (8) There are more and more new developing traffic safety technologies appearing. In-vehicle information systems (IVIS), vehicular networking, internet of things (IoT), vehicular cloud computing (VCC), intelligent transportation systems(ITS), etc. make driving more safe. Intelligent safety roads will be more forgiving of humans’ errors and could communicate with vehicles initiatively. Examples are presented in this paper.