GroundWork group

From left to right: John Hrusovsky, Former GWg National CEO, GroundWork group; Dr. R. Dawn Comstock, Associate Professor, CIRP; Jason Morrison, Manager, Research Information Services, The Research Institute; and, Sheri Chaney Jones, President, Measurement Resources Company. 

The Center for Injury Research and Policy (CIRP) at Nationwide Children’s Hospital won the 2011 GWg Nonprofit IT CreativITy Award for Reporting, among a slate of 5 nominees.  Part of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, CIRP works globally to reduce injury-related pediatric death and disability.  CIRP was awarded for meeting reporting requirements and conducting organizational, financial and management, outcome measurement and board reporting with advanced technology tools.

The award event honored nonprofits for the innovative and meaningful ways in which they are leveraging Information Technology (IT) to support their business functions to help them effectively and efficiently achieve the goals of their missions. 

In 2005, Dr. R. Dawn Comstock implemented the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study using an innovative Internet-based data collection tool, RIO^TM or Reporting Information Online, developed at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.  High School RIO^TM is the only sports injury surveillance study capturing detailed information from a large, nationally representative sample of US high school athletes.

RIO^TM is a cost effective, time efficient, flexible, user friendly technology which provides Dr. Comstock and her team with an unprecedented ability to capture large amounts of detailed data from national study samples.  This quantity of high quality sports and recreation injury data has dramatically advanced the body of knowledge in the sports injury epidemiology field and has been utilized to affect changes at the local, regional, and national level to promote efforts to keep our youth as safe as possible as they play sports.

With innovative research at its core, CIRP works to continually improve scientific understanding of the epidemiology, biomechanics, prevention, acute treatment and rehabilitation of injuries. CIRP serves as a pioneer by translating cutting edge injury research into education, advocacy and advances in clinical care. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) designated the Center for Injury Research and Policy as an Injury Control Research Center in 2008.  In addition to RIO^TM, CIRP offers the Ohio Crash Outcome Data Evaluation System (CODES) Program, the Home Safety Program, the International Program and conducts a Smoke Alarm Study.

For more information on these and other projects of CIRP, please visit http://www.injuryresearch.net/.