CE24-001, The Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy (Center) is a collaborative of injury prevention experts whose mission is to conduct innovative research, teach today’s practitioners and tomorrow’s leaders, and translate discoveries into effective solutions to the devastating and costly problem of injuries. We will achieve our mission through the integrated work and collective impact of our three Cores. The Administrative Core is the Center’s organizational hub, providing infrastructure to support faculty, staff, and students; promote synergistic impacts; and assure equity and anti-racism are integrated throughout our initiatives. The Outreach Core closes the gap between research and practice for all and connects our partners to the Center’s research and teaching initiatives to assure that our work is informed by practitioners and policymakers and that front line workers have access to the best available evidence and experts to inform their injury prevention programming. The Training & Education Core builds professional capacity by attracting and training new talent and assuring that future leaders are well-equipped to address the challenges ahead. Three of Center’s research projects will address opioid use disorders; the fourth will examine suicide and incorporate Adverse Childhood Experiences into the analysis. The four research projects concentrate our research resources on the three NCIPC Director’s priorities using novel methods to address distinct aspects of these persistent injury challenges. Research Project 1 will examine Xylazine in the illicit opioid supply and develop, test, and disseminate messages for service providers about this emerging, deadly contaminant and its management. Research Project 2 will employ psychological autopsy as an innovative method to uncover risk factors and inform prevention strategies for suicide among young Black men. Research Project 3 will assess opioid prescribing, use, storage, and disposal patterns among children and adolescents to inform policy and practice around this neglected aspect of the opioid epidemic. Research Project 4 will apply natural language processing to SUDORS data to strengthen the injury prevention infrastructure within health departments and maximize the return on investment for surveillance data. All four projects include a translational component and connections to policy and practice. All include student research assistants and faculty investigators at all career stages, reflecting our commitment to training the next generation of injury scholars. Two research projects will be led by an early stage investigator. Our agenda for the next five years is ambitious and integrated across the Cores and research projects to maximize impact. We designed our proposal to reduce injuries and save lives. By engaging with issues that have real-world relevance and embracing strategies that will yield short, medium and long-term implications for policy and programs, this proposal offers a timely and impactful response to addressing the most pressing injury issues at the local, state, and national levels.