Suggesting a National Trauma Registry System for Iran

Trauma is the fourth cause of death at all age groups with socio-economic costs which caused more than 6 million deaths in the world in 2000. Despite promising trend in improving many aspects of health case and treatment in the last decade in our country, little attention has been paid to the subject of registering trauma on an international standard. Effective practical research specially in quality improvement of treatment, defined causes of trauma, control, prevention and evaluation of effectiveness of programs, would materialize when the national trauma registry system is established and its data is collected and completed on time. Considering the absence of an appropriate national trauma registry system in Iran, and the necessity to create an appropriate model, conducting this research was urgently felt. This comparative cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate the developed national trauma registry systems in the world and to suggest an appropriate model for Iran national trauma registry system in the years 2002-3. In this study, national trauma registry systems in the world were evaluated via library resources, web sites and e-mail communication with internal and external specialists. Iran national trauma registry system axes was presented based on economical,cultural and geographical situations. This model was evaluated by Delphi technique at 3 stages. At the first and the second stages, semi-structured interviews were used. The validity of the questionnaires and data collection was evaluated. At the third stage, specialists were invited to discuss suggested model completely. After data analysis, the final model was presented. A model suggested for Iran national trauma registry system was in seven main axes. The results showed that in order to optimize the infrastructure of Iran trauma registry system, structure, data elements, information gathering process, main goals, registration criteria, classification system and quality control mechanism of the current national trauma registry system should be re-evaluated. According to international trauma research institute’s suggestions, increase in registry and quality control mechanism, could be considered as advantages of the suggested model in comparison with the present system in the country.