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Comprehensive Injury Center (CIC)

About the ʼһ Comprehensive Injury Center (CIC)

The CIC is a CDC-designated (ICRC) focused on reducing and eliminating injury disparities. ICRCs are funded for five-year cycles. For the 2024-2029 funding cycle, the CIC has received approximately $4.25 million to carry out its core functions. The CIC is led by Director Terri deRoon-Cassini, PhD, MS and Associate Director Michael Levas, MD, MPH. As an organizational structure, the CIC functions with three cores – administrative, education, and community outreach. Each of these cores informs and guides the broader work of our center. While the CIC focuses on all areas of injury prevention, we have specific divisions focused on community safety, suicide, excessive alcohol use, injury science, and data analytics and informatics. Learn more about the CIC Divisions
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Mission

Create a platform to engage campus and community partners in the advancement of injury prevention and control science.

Vision

A healthier and safer community for all.

ICRC Cores

All CDC Injury Control Research Centers (ICRCs) function with three cores that guide their funded work.
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Administrative Core

Core Leads: Ms. Blair Stauffer-Fetting, Dr. Terri deRoon-Cassini, Dr. Mike Levas 

The Administrative Core supports the CIC’s goals and objectives by providing the leadership, oversight, and infrastructure necessary to oversee the administrative functions of the center. This includes integrating and facilitating center activities around research, education and training, outreach, and translation. It also provides fiscal and resource management, allowing for the prudent use of resources and assuring compliance with rules and regulations. The Administrative Core will work with the Community Advisory Board – developed by the Outreach Core - to center the work of the CIC in health equity by addressing injury disparities and injury-related priorities defined by the community. Additionally, the Administrative Core will convene internal and external advisory committees to provide strategic guidance that will ensure that CIC activities and direction match emerging trends in the field of injury and violence prevention. 

The CIC’s current structure includes four divisions that reflect the work for our center. The lead of each Division, the co-leads of each Core, and the Administrative Core team will comprise the Leadership Council of the CIC. Together, the Leadership Council will provide support to the PIs conducting the research projects and will ensure that all efforts center health equity as their primary guiding principle. Including the co-leads of our Cores in the Leadership Council will help to integrate the work of the Cores and the individual research projects into the overall center’s activities.   

The Administrative Core will also monitor and evaluate progress toward achieving the overall goals and objectives of our CDC-funded center. This involves tracking metrics for success, including publications in peer-reviewed journals (including those publications that inform policy), seed project successes, community engagement activities, success with extramural funding, educational offerings, as well as preparing and publishing annual reports to CDC.  

Finally, the Administrative Core will also manage a revamped injury prevention and control Seed Funding Research Program to assist researchers, particularly early career investigators, in advancing the science of injury disparities, and advise on the analysis of pilot data that will lead to larger federal grant applications that strengthen injury prevention and control science. This will allow the CIC to fund three $25,000 pilot grants annually (for a total of 15 new projects over the five years) that are required to have a focus on injury disparities.

Community Outreach Core

Core Leads: Dr. Mike Levas, Mr. Reggie Moore, Dr. Libby Schroeder 

The Outreach Core will focus on the reduction of the burden of injury among vulnerable populations in Milwaukee and across Wisconsin. This will be achieved by intentionally and actively collaborating with community partners, public health agencies, and healthcare systems to identify and reduce disparities in the burden of injury. Through this application, the CIC will expand its outreach efforts by developing active partnerships with health departments and community organizations to improve community safety and health.   

The Outreach Core Leadership will assemble the Community Advisory Board (CAB) outreach team. The team will consist of community members representative of populations in Wisconsin who experience injury-related health disparities or are at risk for health disparities related to injury from municipalities across the state who have the highest burden of suicide, gun violence, opioid overdose, and traumatic brain injury as determined by the Wisconsin county health rankings. The goal of the CAB will be to: 

  • Provide CAB members the opportunities to gain skills in injury prevention, research, and evaluation of injury prevention programming  
  • Inform CIC of community values and norms  
  • Share community’s unique history  
  • Provide accurate information about the community  
  • Help make decisions that become part of the goals and activities of the CIC  
  • Share ideas, perspectives, and opinions about programming and dissemination of findings  

Other goals of the Outreach Core include: 

  • Disseminating research findings and share injury data broadly to support injury prevention and control policies and strategies that target and reduce injury disparities.  
  • Providing technical assistance (TA) and research assistance (RA) to communities across the state vulnerable to injury disparities. 
  • Leveraging the Data and Surveillance Capabilities of the CIC to further support efforts of reducing injury disparities.  
Training and Education Core

Core Leads: Dr. Terri deRoon-Cassini and Dr. Sehr Khan 

Currently, the CIC organizes and supports the training of medical and graduate students in injury-related topics across the MCW campus. With this funding, the CIC will expand its training and educational activities under the Training and Education Core. To accomplish this, we will develop, implement, and evaluate multi-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary training and education that will reach multiple audiences in the community engagement, research, public health, and clinical aspects of injury science. 

Key activities in this core: 

  • Summer Injury Prevention Institute 
  • Hargarten Injury Research Fellowship 
  • Development and implementation of trauma-informed care curriculum at Froedtert for staff providers 
  • Provide injury-related didactics and course offerings for learners on MCW campuses and other local campuses 
  • Mentoring of medical and pharmacy students, residents, and fellows in injury-related scholarly activities 
  • Mentoring of graduate students in injury-related field placements, capstone projects, theses, and dissertations 
  • Mentoring of junior faculty in injury-related research to support career development 
  • Support field placements and capstone work at the CIC for mentored injury research or evaluation projects 
  • Develop a CIC Pipeline Program to provide opportunities to learners from underrepresented groups 
  • Develop annual summer injury symposium 
  • Host grand rounds, lectures, webinars, and podcasts on injury prevention and control 
  • Host community townhalls on injury prevention and control 
  • Engage in collaborative inquiry with community to address injury priority topics 
  • Provide Stop the Bleed training for locations in Milwaukee with clustering of violence 

CDC ICRC Funded Research Projects

Addressing Health Equity and Barriers to Access to Care in Emergency Departments for mild Traumatic Brain Injury (AHEAD-mTBI)

Addressing Health Equity and Barriers to Access to Care in Emergency Departments for mild Traumatic Brain Injury (AHEAD-mTBI)

Overview
This project will seek to characterize the patient and family experience and health disparities that exist among patients experiencing concussion (mTBI) within the pediatric ED population. It will also seek to improve the concussion (mTBI) diagnosis and management in the adult ED.

Co-Principal Investigators

Dr. Lindsay Nelson and Dr. Danny Thomas

Evaluating the Roles of Alcohol and Firearms on Disparities in Homicides and Suicides in Wisconsin

Evaluating the Roles of Alcohol and Firearms on Disparities in Homicides and Suicides in Wisconsin

Overview:
This project will seek to determine if there are differences in the victim, event, and community characteristics of homicides and suicides in which the victim had a positive Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC+) overall and at various thresholds compared to those in which the victim tested negative. Investigators will also examine the intersection between the victims of firearm and non-firearm homicides and suicides in relation to alcohol consumption across demographic groups.   

Co-Principal Investigators
Dr. Carissa Tomas and Dr. Constance Kostelac

Experiences with Police Violence and Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors among Young Black Men

Experiences with Police Violence and Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors among Young Black Men

Overview
This project will seek to examine young Black men’s (aged 18-30) experiences with police violence and mental health challenges through qualitative interviews with young Black men and through quantitative analysis examining relationships between police violence and suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

Co-Principal Investigators
Dr. Sara Kohlbeck and Dr. Katherine Quinn

The Role of Detoxification in Preventing or Contributing to Opioid Overdose

The Role of Detoxification in Preventing or Contributing to Opioid Overdose

Overview
This project will seek to understand how detoxification (detox) is used for people with opioid use disorder in Wisconsin and explore geographic variability, referral source, and patient-level characteristics associated with receiving detox. Through key informant interviews, investigators will also seek to gain greater understanding of the drivers of inappropriate use of detox for opioid use disorder. Finally, the project will develop a multi-level, de-implementation strategy for inappropriate use of detox with the goal of replacing it with more effective treatment for opioid use disorder.

Principal Investigator
Dr. Julia Dickson-Gomez

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