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Road injury data systems highly fragmented

Global inventory and audit of road injury data systems: a descriptive study using the Road Injury Chain of Survival Framework
Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine · Added 31 May 2026

They audited global road injury data systems to assess coverage across the Road Injury Chain of Survival, and found extensive fragmentation with few systems linking crash, rescue, prehospital, and hospital data, severely limiting quality improvement opportunities.

Study type

Cross-sectional

Design

Descriptive global audit of national and regional road injury datasets against the Road Injury Chain of Survival framework

Participants

349 data systems (357 datasets) worldwide

Main finding

Police crash databases most common; formal cross-sector data linkage rare; data coverage greatest for Early Recognition and substantially less for rescue, prehospital care, transport and hospital care links.

Caveat

Descriptive audit with unverified and aggregate-only datasets; coding subject to available documentation

Bottom line

Context only

Learning goal

Understand how fragmented road injury data systems limit quality improvement across the trauma chain of survival in Australia.

More

• Topic: Trauma
• Daily scan: 31 May 2026

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