Mission.
To empower medical professionals with the tools to anonymously report relevant details of injuries that occur to patients, supporting injury prevention research.
The GIRC is committed to injury prevention through education, outreach, and research activities.
Details.
The Global Injury Research Collaborative (GIRC) was founded in August 2019, as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The founders of the organization are engineering and medical professionals who are truly committed to the prevention of future injuries that occur to patients of all age ranges.
Our primary goal is to collect pertinent, non-identified data, to be compliant with current HIPAA standards, in order to allow worldwide data collection across all health systems. There is currently no existing mechanism for medical professionals to contribute their patients’ injuries in a simple but useful way to benefit others in the future.
Those who care for patients suffering aspiration or ingestion events — or any foreign body injury, will have a simple, effective way to report cases using the free mobile app, publicly available for iPhone on the App Store, and Android on Google Play. Search “GIRC App” to download and register.
The apps gather data from medical professionals all over the world that is then analyzed to help prevent future injuries. Unfortunately, patients too frequently suffer serious injuries that can be prevented, and this critical data is necessary to drive changes across industry, government, and the medical care provided.
Difference.
The GIRC believes making decisions is best done with data. All too often, available data is deemed limited. We’ve made the choice to do the right thing and collect the data that’s hard to get so countless others can make the best choices.
The GIRC differentiates its data in several ways:
The data is truly global, there are no limits or boundaries regarding which medical professionals can contribute from where. The data source is verified and educated on how to populate raw data to ensure precision and accuracy in every submission.
The data contains engineering insights that help create not just injury and hazard trends, but factors that combat anecdote across multiple levels of industry, research, and medical practice.
Pictures say a 1,000 words, and we collect three of them. The product pictures are instantly uploaded and allow us to collect additional parameters that are difficult to capture in text or questionnaires.
Data collection is focused on all injuries, and is not limited to physical goods. The GIRC is proud to feature insights into button batteries, food related choking, pet products*, eye damage*, and even pulmonary vaping* related incidents.
(*custom interface coming soon.)Collecting data from the basement of a hospital has never been easier. Data collection takes less than two minutes and is done via mobile device. Even if you’re off Wi-Fi or mobile data, any inputs will be pushed to the database as soon as connection is gained.
Zero delay. As soon as the data is inputted, it is available. A successful removal procedure can be shared globally, instantly. A viral trend in product markets can be observed and provided to organizations and medical professionals immediately.
News.
Click to review the presentation and summary statistics shared at the Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons in October 2019.
Who we are.
Keith Rhoades
Founder
Keith has dedicated his professional and academic careers to consumer and food product safety, human factors research, and risk awareness. Keith serves the safety community by actively participating and contributing to the ASTM International F15 committee, the Human Factors and Ergonomic Society, the National Button Battery Task Force, the International Consumer Product Health and Safety Organization - Annual Symposium planning committee, Kids in Danger, and the Ethics Advisory Council of the Purdue College of Engineering Education.
Kris Jatana, M.D.
Board Member
Dr. Jatana is a pediatric otolaryngologist who is an author on over 80 published manuscripts and book chapters and has presented his research and ideas at hundreds of industry, medical, and scientific meetings. His research has earned several national and international awards. Since 2012, Dr. Jatana has served a leadership role on the National Button Battery Task Force, and his innovative ideas have resulted in several clinical practice guideline changes. Dr. Jatana is a nationally recognized expert on the surgical management of pediatric aerodigestive foreign bodies and quality improvement. He has been interviewed by numerous media outlets for a global impact on consumer product safety and injury prevention.
James Reilly, M.D.
Board Member
James (Jim) Reilly is a pediatric otolaryngologist and has dedicated much of his career advocating for medical professional collaboration with consumer product safety. Dr. Reilly has been recognized for awards and accolades from the American Broncho Esophagological Association, the Inter-American Association for Pediatric Otolaryngology for his research of foreign bodies and small parts related to injury prevention. Dr. Reilly's lectures in the USA, Europe, Asia and South America have greatly impacted the safety standards and guidelines for toy and food products for the past three decades. Jim remains committed to improving safe environments for everyone, particularly children
Participate.
Since fall of 2019, doctors and medical professionals from all over the world have registered and reported their findings.
Join them in Reporting to Prevent.
If you represent any medical profession: Physicians (MD, DO, or equivalent degree), Physician Assistant (PA), Advance Practice Nurse (APN), or Registered Nurses (RN) — download and register.
Navigate to the Apple App Store or Google Play, search “GIRC App,” and download for your use.
Once you create a profile, your information will be reviewed, a private invite will be sent to the email address provided to activate your account. Your account information will never be directly stored with any data you input.
Given it will take years for data to amass, participants are encouraged to help promote reporting among like-minded colleagues who want to help make a difference and contribute to injury prevention research.
We believe altruistic participation is incentive enough. By reporting, we can work together to prevent further injury.
Collaborate.
Any registered medical professional participant, or like-minded individual or organization, can submit a study proposal. Once submitted, the proposal will be reviewed by the Board for consideration. Data will be analyzed and released with approval of the Board for purposes that embrace the mission of GIRC.
Should you or your organization be interested in collaborating, please fill out the form below with a brief description, and we will reach out to you directly.