The Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit Hosts WHO VIP Team Member

On Thursday, June 4, 2015, Dr. David Meddings MD, MHSc, FRCP, visited the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit (JH-IIRU). Dr. Meddings is with the Department of Violence and Injury Prevention (VIP) and Disability, Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health, at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.

While at the Bloomberg School, Dr. Meddings met with JH-IIRU team members, including director, Adnan Hyder, associate director, Abdulgafoor Bachani and assistant scientist Olakunle Alonge, among others, to discuss our common areas of interest, including child injury prevention, burns, drowning prevention and falls.

Notably, Dr. Meddings is the executive editor of the recently released Global report on drowning: preventing a leading killer. Dr. Hyder was a member of the editorial committee on the report, which highlights evidence showing a range of effective drowning prevention strategies, and makes a number of recommendations for concrete measures to be taken by national and local governments. Access the report here.

Also of note, Dr. Meddings is working with colleagues at the WHO do develop a global burns registry that would be administered in a health facility during convalescences after initial care of the patient.

Dr. Meddings joined the Department for Management of Noncommunicable Diseases, Disability, Violence and Injury Prevention (NVI) in January 2002. He coordinates the Department's work in response to child injury prevention, and burns, drowning and falls prevention. He also coordinates the Department's work in support of capacity building and policy development.

JH-IIRU was pleased to host Dr. Meddings and looks forward to continued collaboration with he and the WHO’s Department of Violence and Injury Prevention and Disability.

Follow these links to read more about JH-IIRU’s work with WHO’s VIP as well as our work on child injury prevention, drowning prevention and burns.