A U.S. Border Patrol officer critically injured in a motorcycle crash, a young woman trapped in a car fire and a Tucson woman badly injured in an ATV accident are among the grateful Southern Arizona trauma survivors who will address first responders, trauma surgeons, emergency nurses and others at the 27th Annual Southwest Regional Conference, Aug. 4-5.
The conference, which draws hundreds of EMS providers, medical personnel, law enforcement officers and vendors to Tucson each year, is hosted by the Division of Trauma, Acute Care, Burn and Emergency Surgery at the University of Arizona Department of Surgery and by Banner – University Medical Center Tucson, which operates the only Level 1 Trauma Center in Southern Arizona.
In the United States, trauma is the leading cause of death in people ages 46 and younger, exceeding cancer and heart disease combined. The Trauma Center at Banner – UMC Tucson treats nearly 5,000 patients each year. Car crashes, motorcycle accidents, falls and burns are the leading causes of injury in Southern Arizona, said trauma surgeon Andrew Tang, MD, a UA associate professor of surgery and program chair of this year’s conference.
The annual conference aims to deliver the most current information on trauma and its management to health-care professionals working to combat this major public health issue. Among this year’s conference topics:
- Rural Trauma: How Time and Distance Changes Things
- CSI Tucson: Trauma Through the Medical Examiner’s Eyes
- Active Shooter: Current Approaches to the Event Phase of Mass Casualty Shooting
- Communication in Mass Casualty: Is There a Role for Social Media?
- Spine Trauma: To Board or Not to Board and Other Controversies
- Tricks of the Trade in Unusual and Complicated Hand Injuries
- Biological Warfare: Infectious Agents You May Face
A complete program and registration information is available here.
Assignment editors, please note this media opportunity:
Grateful survivors, Thursday, Aug. 4: Beginning at 4:40 p.m. Aug. 4, several former patients of the Banner – UMC Trauma Center will address conference participants. They will describe their trauma experience and recovery from a personal standpoint and express their appreciation to the first responders and medical personnel who helped them survive their injuries.
About Banner – University Medical Center Tucson and South
Banner – University Medical Center Tucson and Banner – University Medical Center South are part of Banner – University Medicine, a premier academic medical network. These institutions are academic medical centers for the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson. Included on the two campuses are Diamond Children's Medical Center and many clinics. The two academic medical centers are part of Arizona-based Banner Health, one of the largest nonprofit health care systems in the country. Banner Health is in seven states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada and Wyoming. For more information, visit www.bannerhealth.com/locations/tucson/banner-university-medical-center-tucson or www.bannerhealth.com/locations/tucson/banner-university-medical-center-south
About the University of Arizona Health Sciences
The University of Arizona Health Sciences is the statewide leader in biomedical research and health professions training. The UA Health Sciences includes the UA Colleges of Medicine (Phoenix and Tucson), Nursing, Pharmacy and Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, with main campus locations in Tucson and the growing Phoenix Biomedical Campus in downtown Phoenix. From these vantage points, the UA Health Sciences reaches across the state of Arizona and the greater Southwest to provide cutting-edge health education, research, patient care and community outreach services. A major economic engine, the UA Health Sciences employs almost 5,000 people, has nearly 1,000 faculty members and garners more than $126 million in research grants and contracts annually. For more information: uahs.arizona.edu