Advances in the prevention of injuries and their effect on emergency medical services.

Much attention has been focused on the response to victims of injuries in the last two decades. During those twenty years, tremendous strides have been made in the medical community's ability to meet the needs of patients in the acute phase of treatment for traumatic injuries. Recent research has reflected these advances in treatment as well as equipment design and development that enable rapid response and access to the injured. Even with these modern miracles of treatment, injuries kill more citizens of the United States 1-34 yr of age than all diseases combined. Traumatic injury is the leading cause of death in people up to 44 yr of age. The emergency medical services community identifies the best "treatment" for traumatic injury as its prevention by means of pre-incident interventions that ultimately reduce the severity of the injury and the potential disablement of the victim.