Lycoming County Health Improvement Coalition - Internet Portal

Geisinger Using Patient Database to Assess Fracking Harm

Geisinger Health System, a nonprofit chain of hospitals in eastern Pennsylvania, plans to use its database of patient records to determine whether natural gas drilling in the state’s Marcellus shale is harming residents.

The hospital system began planning the project last year and started mining hundreds of thousands of medical records in recent weeks, David Carey, the director of Geisinger’s Weis Center for Research, said in an interview at a conference in Washington. Carey said Danville, Pennsylvania-based Geisinger is talking with foundations, the government and the gas industry about contributing money to expand the project.

Violence and Injury Program (VIPP) - June 2012 Digest

The June 2012 Violence and Injury Prevention Program digest report is now available here.

Violence and Injury Program (VIPP) - May 2012 Digest

The May 2012 Violence and Injury Prevention Program digest report is now available here.

Pennsylvania Scores 5 out of 10 on Injury Prevention Report Card

New Mexico Has Highest Rate of Injury Deaths in the U.S.;

Pennsylvania Scores 5 out of 10 on Injury Prevention Report Card

Nearly Half of States Score 5 or Lower out of 10

Washington, D.C., May 22, 2012– In a new report, The Facts Hurt: A State-By-State Injury Prevention Policy Report, 24 states scored a five or lower on a set of 10 key indicators of steps states can take to prevent injuries. Two states, California and New York, received the highest score of nine out of a possible 10, while two states scored the lowest, Montana and Ohio, with two out of 10.

Injuries – including those caused by accidents and violence – are the third leading cause of death nationally, and they are the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of one and 44.

The Facts Hurt report, released today by the Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), concludes that millions of injuries could be prevented each year if more states adopted additional research-based injury prevention policies, and if programs were fully implemented and enforced.