National Institutes of Health Fogarty International U.S. - Poland Collaborative Injury and Alcohol Training Program

Reducing death and disability caused by alcohol-related intentional and non-intentional injuries is a major world-wide health goal for the World Health Organization.  Alcohol use has been linked with a substantial proportion of injuries and deaths from motor vehicle crashes, falls, and fires. 

Injury and trauma constitute the third leading cause of death in Poland, with a preponderance of alcohol-related mortality.  Developing an infrastructure to expand the capacity for injury and alcohol research and prevention in Poland is addressing an escalating public health problem that has the potential for devastating health and economic consequences.

The Fogarty International Training Program is a multi-tiered research training program collaboration between researchers at the University of Michigan (UM) (led by Dr. Frederic C. Blow) and the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Medical University of Warsaw (led by Dr. Andrzej Zawadzki ) and other research institutions in Poland.

This new specific injury and alcohol collaboration brings together expertise in alcohol-related injury prevention, EMS/Trauma services, psychiatry, public health, and transportation research at UM with a developing expertise in injury and trauma medicine and public health in Poland in order to increase training and research capacity in Poland.