Standardizing data collection in severe trauma: call for linking up.

Standardization of data collection in severely injured trauma patients in order to find the best performance and practice has been an issue for more than 20 years. The incidence of trauma has decreased and outcomes have improved over the past decades. Trauma still remains an important public health problem, however, and is listed by the World Health Organization as a leading cause of death and disability. Ringdal and colleagues prove the feasibility on a basic level in their prospective, intercontinental study showing the results of the Utstein Trauma Template. In-depth analysis is currently only partially possible. The future of standardizing data collection in trauma looks bright. However, bridging and cross-linking is necessary to a great extent in the future.