Jiang Baoguo: one, two, three against trauma in China

To those who live in nations that count their population in tens rather than hundreds of millions, Chinese health and social statistics can be faintly unnerving. Major trauma, for example, accounts for more than 60 million visits annually to Chinese hospitals, and for 700 000–800 000 deaths. Many of these injuries are due to road traffic accidents—and car ownership in China has soared. One man long familiar with these figures is Professor Jiang Baoguo, President of Peking University People's Hospital and its Chief Physician, who is a co-author of a Review on transport and public health in China in this issue. Although not unnerved by these figures, he has found them disturbing. As a doctor rather than a traffic planner Jiang's scope for preventing accidents is limited. But as Director of his university's Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, he has spent years trying to improve the medical response to them. In 2006, he founded the Peking University Trauma Medicine Centre, and since that time he's been the key architect of an ambitious scheme to restructure the Chinese system for dealing with major trauma. Transport and public health in China: the road to a healthy futureTransportation-related risk factors are a major source of morbidity and mortality in China, where the expansion of road networks and surges in personal vehicle ownership are having profound effects on public health. Road traffic injuries and fatalities have increased alongside increased use of motorised transport in China, and accident injury risk is aggravated by inadequate emergency response systems and trauma care. National air quality standards and emission control technologies are having a positive effect on air quality, but persistent air pollution is increasingly attributable to a growing and outdated vehicle fleet and to famously congested roads. Full-Text PDF