Before the Bullets Fly: The Physician’s Role in Preventing FirearmInjury

摘要

Firearm injury is a disease that is disproportionately prevalent in the UnitedStates. When a bullet hits a human being, it brings together multiple structuraldeterminants of health into one acute, life-changing event. Firearm injury canlead to long-term mental and physical challenges for individuals, families, andcommunities. Despite the impact of this disease, physicians often underestimatetheir role in not only treating but also preventing firearm injury. Physicianscan intervene through screening, counseling, community engagement, and advocacy,and can mobilize the health care systems they serve to engage with injuryprevention. Physicians also play a key role in expanding the knowledge base onfirearm injury through much-needed research on the epidemiology, context, andoutcomes of firearm injury. When we treat firearm injury as a disease, we candevelop and implement interventions from the clinic to the statehouse that cancurb profound harms. This work and these opportunities belong not only toemergency physicians and trauma surgeons, but to all fields that evaluate andassess patients over the life course.