Leveraging EMS, Emergency Department Visit, and Crash Data to Inform Traffic Safety Action in North Carolina

Timeframe

2023-2026

HSRC Team

Dr. Katie Harmon, Principal Investigator and Senior Research Associate
Sandro Figueroa, Project Manager and Research Associate
Dr. Yuni Tang, Co-Investigator and Research Associate
Dan Levitt, Crash Data Specialist and Applications Analyst
Nancy Lefler, Traffic Records Liaison and Senior Research Associate
Jonathon Weisenfeld and Graham Russell, Graphic Design Support

Browse recent work by these HSRC researchers on their individual bio page.

Collaborating organization(s)

Carolina Center for Health Informatics, Department of Emergency Medicine, UNC School of Medicine
Dr. Amy Ising, Co-Principal Investigator and NC DETECT Program Director
Dr. Anna Waller, Subject Matter Expert and Director of CCHI
Matthew Kerber, Emergency Department/EMS Data Specialist and NC DETECT Database Developer

Injury Prevention Research Center
Dr. Mike Fliss, Co-Investigator and IPRC Core Faculty
Luke Neuroth, Graduate Research Assistant

Summary

Accurate, complete, and timely data are foundational to the Safe System approach for eliminating serious and fatal traffic injuries, yet traditional law enforcement officer (LEO)–reported crash data alone cannot fully capture post crash outcomes or the broader context of traffic injuries. Public health data sources, such as emergency medical services (EMS) and emergency department (ED) visit data, provide complementary information relating to post-crash outcomes, including injury diagnoses and measures of injury severity. Furthermore, these data sources often capture incidents not reported to police. When integrated with crash data, these sources can provide a more comprehensive understanding of traffic injury events, particularly for vulnerable road users and non motorized modes that are often underreported in crash data due to definitional or reporting limitations.

Now in its third year, this North Carolina Governor’s Highway Safety Program–funded project leverages public health data to support state and local traffic safety stakeholders, with a particular focus on Vision Zero communities. The project supports the North Carolina Health Outcomes Data Dashboard by integrating EMS, emergency department visit, and linked EMS–crash data to identify emerging safety issues, inform program planning and evaluation, and to engage the public. Collectively, this work demonstrates both the value and the challenges of using public health data for traffic safety and presents a replicable approach for integrating diverse data systems to better understand injury outcomes and guide effective, equitable traffic safety interventions.

Research Impact, Results, and Findings

Selected Reports

Selected Presentations

Funding organization(s)

North Carolina Governor’s Highway Safety Program

Related Work

Additional information

NCVZ Dashboard Demo
This video is an instructional demonstration that walks through recent updates to the North Carolina Health Outcomes Dashboard and explains how to use it. The Health Outcomes Dashboard is a tool for transportation safety professionals that links North Carolina crash data, EMS data, and NC DETECT Emergency Department visit data. This dashboard provides North Carolina transportation safety stakeholders with a more holistic representation of crash information that can be leveraged for future improvements.

        

Contact Information

For questions about our program or if you would like to learn more about how EMS/ED visit data can inform your work, please contact Sandro Figueroa (a.figueroa@hsrc.unc.edu).

The Dashboard

NC Vision Zero hosts an interactive dashboard where visitors can view the collected data in different ways. View the dashboard at ncvisionzero.org/visualizations/health-outcomes-dashboard/.