Assessing hospital treatment for alcohol-related injury in Minnesota using 2000 - 2015 hospital discharge data: Opportunities and challenges.

Objective: Excessive alcohol use, especially binge drinking, is an important risk factor for unintentional and intentional injuries. This study used hospital discharge data (HDD) to estimate the prevalence and trends of treatments for alcohol-related injury (ARI) in Minnesota, and discussed opportunities and challenges for public health surveillance.

Method: We examined hospital-treated ARI in Minnesota between 2000 and 2015 using HDD (age ≥12 years).

This is your brain on sports. Measuring concussions in high school athletes in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.

Concussions can have a negative impact on students' ability to perform in the classroom as well as on their health and well-being. Therefore, timely treatment is especially important. To better understand the scope of the problem in Minnesota, the Minnesota Department of Health piloted an online sports-related concussion reporting system in 36 public high schools in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.

The high cost of bath salts: a study of the health care burden of illicit synthetic drug use in Duluth, Minnesota.

The Minnesota Department of Health conducted an exploratory epidemiologic investigation into the health care burden of illicit synthetic drug (ISD) use in Duluth, Minnesota. Staff reviewed medical records of 78 patients with suspected ISD use who were treated in emergency departments at two Duluth-area hospitals from January through September 2013. Most (67%) were unemployed, 75% arrived at the hospital by ambulance or police escort and 57% were admitted to the hospital.

Nonfatal work-related traumatic brain injury in Minnesota, 1999-2008.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified traumatic brain injury (TBI) as a public health problem in the United States; it is notable that some variables of work-related TBI are different from those of non-work-related TBI. The Minnesota Department of Health has been conducting epidemiologic surveillance of cases of hospitalized TBI since 1993. Although most of the surveillance efforts have focused on all TBIs, the department does collect data on work-related TBIs and their associated outcomes.

Connecting kids! Effective recruitment for resource facilitation in the pediatric population.

Objective: To describe and compare recruitment strategies to Resource Facilitation (RF) for children and youth with an incident traumatic brain injury.

Population: The universe of Minnesota children (0-14 years old) and youth (15-24 years old) with a traumatic brain injury, and discharge date in the year 2005.

Methods: Using an observational study design, registry data were merged with the data sets kept for each method of contact.

Hospital-treated dog bites in Minnesota, 1998-2005.

This paper is the first to describe the incidence of hospital-treated dog bites in Minnesota using hospital discharge data supplemented with medical record review. The rate of hospital-treated dog bites rose 40% during the 8-year period studied, with the largest growth being seen in the number of emergency department (ED) visits. The highest rates of both hospitalization and ED treatment occurred among children ages 1 to 4 years.

Epidemiology of emergency department-treated traumatic brain injury in Minnesota.

A number of population-based studies have been published on mortality and hospitalizations associated with traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, very little has been published on treatment of TBI in the emergency department (ED), despite the fact that most cases are seen in such settings. Minnesota is 1 of 2 states funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since 2001 to conduct surveillance of TBIs treated in EDs.

Epidemiology of trauma in Minnesota.

Injury accounts for more than 2,500 deaths and 300,000 hospital admissions in Minnesota each year. Using the 2002 Minnesota hospital discharge database, we examined the subset of hospital-treated injuries that received trauma care and categorized claims into trauma-related deaths, cases of nonfatal major trauma, and other cases that received specialized trauma care. We also examined where trauma patients received their care, the leading diagnoses for trauma deaths and nonfatal major trauma, and whether a statewide trauma system that would identify and equip more hospitals as trauma centers would have significant potential for improving trauma care in Minnesota.