Injury prevention will be a central focus of trauma systems of
the future because it offers the greatest potential for reducing
the burden - financial and otherwise - of trauma care, as well
as morbidity and mortality. At the present time, t he public
health infrastructure for injury prevention varies greatly among
states and regions. Funding for injury prevention is often non-
existent or limited, which prevents long-term implementation and
program evaluation. Injury prevention is variably represented in
trauma systems; the focus has traditionally been on secondary
and tertiary prevention (efforts to reduce the impact of an
injury once it has occurred and optimize its outcome). Although
primary injury prevention programs have been implemented by pre-
hospital and acute care providers, few have been systematically
Community-based injury prevention programs have been
demonstrated to avert injury-related morbidity and mortality and
to reduce health care costs, although there is a huge gap
between what is known to