Statewide Linkage of Crash, EMS, and Trauma Center Records

Crashes are one of the leading causes of preventable death in the United States, carrying a severe burden on public health and wellness. Police-reported crash data is the primary source of information for transportation engineers to systematically address safety. However, there exist other additional datasets that can help explain factors associated with variance in crash outcomes and dictate how safety is addressed. Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and Hospitals both collect data about victims of traffic injuries. Both include specifics of the injury (Burch et al., 2014) through diagnoses and narratives. Recent research at the University of Louisville has linked four datasets within Jefferson County, including crash data from the state police, EMS run data from Louisville Metro Government’s computer-aided dispatch system, patient care reports collected by paramedics and EMTs at the scene of the crash, and trauma registry data from UofL Hospital. Data linkage was implemented using a heuristic algorithm developed by the University of Louisville and displayed in Figure 1 (Hosseinzadeh, et al 2020). Figure 1. Data Linkage Framework (Hosseinzadeh, et al 2020) The objective of the proposed project is to build upon the framework developed and adapt the linkage approach to statewide using data from the Kentucky State Police, Kentucky Board of EMS, and KIPRIC. The algorithm needs to be adjusted to accommodate differences in the data structure between local sources in Louisville and statewide sources. While the statewide data is more far reaching, the primary challenge will be determining how to adapt to difference in data completeness within the EMS and trauma datasets, since the datasets are sourced from numerous agencies across the state. The project deliverables will consist of: 1) A dataset provided to KYTC, KBEMS, KIPRIC, and other interested parties with the linked records. 2) A report, delivered to KYTC’s KTRACS group consisting of the adapted framework, performance measures detailed above, and additional findings. UK Role and tasks: The University of Kentucky will play a support role in this project. Three tasks are to be conducted, as follows: 1) Assist the University of Louisville in obtaining data including providing databases as approved under the UK/KYTC Data MOU 2) Advise the University of Louisville on data interpretation and processing 3) Review and comment on draft final report References Burch, C., Cook, L., Dischinger, P., 2014. A comparison of KABCO and AIS injury severity metrics using CODES linked data. Traffic injury prevention 15, 627-630. Hosseinzadeh, A., Karimpour, A., Kluger, R., and Orthober, R. A Framework to Link Crashes to Emergency Medical Service Runs and Trauma Admissions for Improved Highway Safety Monitoring and Crash Outcome Assessment. Presented at the TRB Annual Meeting. Janurary 2020, Washington DC.