Associate Director Represents Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit for Meetings, Workshops in Qatar

On January 23-24, 2019, Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit Associate Director Dr. Amber Mehmood joined together with leaders from Hamad Medical Corporation to participate in workshops and progress meetings on critical research subjects, such as occupational injury prevention and road safety. 

Mehmood, along with Hamad Medical Corporation’s leadership team first led a writing workshop focusing on work-related injuries and the evaluation of injury data sources. The workshop, attended by staff of the Hamad Medical Corporation’s injury prevention unit, and hospital trauma surgery and emergency room staff, also covered data analysis regarding cost on injury and trauma care in the Hamad Trauma Center.

Drs. Ruben Peralta, Rafael Consunji, Aisha Abeid, Monira Mollazehi, Nazia Hirani, Tsoler Sekayen, and Cecilia Claudio were part of the core group representing different units of Hamad Medical Corporation.

The team then held progress meetings for a pair of JH-IIRU-related projects, Work-place-injury Unified Registry for Qatar (WURQ) and Young Kids in Safe Seats (Y-KISS).  Mehmood and the Hamad’s core group discussed the sustainability and continuing efforts for work-related injury prevention and control in Qatar, as well as the interventions directed toward awareness and education of labor workforce in Qatar.

Both WURQ and Y-KISS are funded by the Qatar National Research Fund and began in 2015, respectively. The Y-KISS team set out to develop a child car seats program for new parents in Qatar, and determine the effectiveness of a child car seat program for new parents using a randomized study design. Through WURQ, JH-IIRU and its partners set out to understand the epidemiology of workplace injuries in Qatar, develop and pilot test an occupational injury registry for the state, and engage relevant stakeholders to consider occupational injuries as a key public health issue.