Innovation in trauma care: 2nd World Trauma Congress and 15th European Congress of Trauma and Emergency Surgery

Abstract

Trauma remains a major public health problem worldwide. Intentional and unintentional injuries occur in highas well as in lowand middle-income countries, leading to deaths and millions of disabled individuals. No other disease has had such an impact on individuals, on families, and on society. Interestingly enough, recognizing traumatic injury as a disease, using a disease management model, and providing organized and comprehensive care through the development of trauma systems decreases mortality by 25 % and markedly reduces the burden of the disease. Again, no other disease process has been affected so much by the organization and implementation of care systems. Although we all recognize trauma as the number one killer between the ages of 1 and 45 years worldwide, it was only until recently (August 2012) that the world came together in Rio de Janeiro to learn, debate, and discuss not only modern management strategies, but also to acknowledge our individual and the collective responsibility of many international trauma societies to advance knowledge, clinical care, prevention, strategies, and systems development. The first World Trauma Congress (WTC), organized under the auspices of the Brazilian Trauma Society and with the full support of several international organizations, was a tremendous success. At the last session of that meeting, a collective decision was made that our professional trauma organizations should remain engaged and continue the work initiated in Rio. The World Coalition for Trauma Care (WCTC) was created (http://www.worldcoalition-trauma-care.org), with the intent to organize and promote the WTC in perpetuity. The agreement to gather every 2 years around the WTC always linked to the annual meeting of one of our participating trauma organizations. There are currently more than 70 national trauma professional organizations participating in the WCTC. Our commitment is to continue advancing and disseminating knowledge, implementing prevention strategies, developing trauma systems, and, more importantly, sharing with each other our experiences and successes. In addition, WCTC member societies recognize their responsibility in helping and supporting low-income countries in their regions to advance trauma care. It is with great excitement and with a profound degree of gratitude to the European Society for Trauma and Emergency Surgery (ESTES) that we gather again for the second WTC in Frankfurt, Germany. The ESTES has been a WCTC partner since its inception and an unconditional supporter of our goals. The executive board of the ESTES unanimously supported the idea of hosting the second WTC together with their annual meeting in 2014. It seems clear that the international scientific community as well as trauma providers and trauma patients and their families worldwide will benefit from the second WTC organized by ESTES. The world will be forever grateful to the whole executive board of the ESTES and, in particular, to the R. Coimbra Division of Trauma, Surgical Critical Care, and Burns, Department of Surgery, UC San Diego Health System, San Diego, CA, USA e-mail: rcoimbra@ucsd.edu