Centre for Trauma Care, Prevention, Education & Research
The research program of the Centre for Trauma Care, Prevention, Education & Research focuses on improving outcomes of traumatic injury in childhood and adolescence.
Our research provides the evidence base for effective implementation of policies that improve the safety and wellbeing of young people. We aim to prevent the debilitating and life-threatening injuries we see in children presenting at The Children's Hospital at Westmead, or reduce the severity of these injuries through better diagnosis and earlier intervention.
For example, our research identified passenger numbers increase the risk of car crash injuries in young drivers. This and other research led to legislative changes restricting passengers numbers in P-plate drivers under 25 years old.
Our clinical program can also be found on the Sydney Children's Hospitals Network website
Current projects
The Centre for Trauma Care, Prevention, Education and Research has a number of ongoing research projects, examining:
> Aetiological risk factors
- Risk factors of car crash injuries among young drivers
- NSW Paediatric Sports Injuries Surveillance
- Childhood near drowning risk factors
> Management and care
- Paediatric Trauma Care Management
> Rehabilitation and outcome
- Functional and quality of life outcomes of children who suffered a traumatic injury
- Clinical perspective of “Return to activity” after a traumatic head injury
- Prescribed Exercise and Recovery from Traumatic Head Injury
The research team
> Professor Danny Cass, Centre for Trauma Care, Prevention, Education & Research Director
Danny is the Head of Trauma at the Children's Hospital at Westmead, a position he has held since 1985. For more information please visit Danny's University of Sydney profile page
> Other Research Team Members
- Professor Andrew Holland, Professor of Paediatric Surgery
- Dr SVS Soundappan, Trauma Fellow
- Frank Ross, Clinical Nurse Consultant
- Patricia Manglick, Data Manager, email: patricia.manglick@health.nsw.gov.au
Key publications
Holland A, Roy G, Cass D (2014) The epidemiology of horse-related injuries. The Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery 77(1): 18
Mitchell R, Curtis K, Chong S, Holland A, Sannappa Venkatraman S, Wilson K, Cass D (2013) Comparative analysis of trends in paediatric trauma outcomes in New South Wales, Australia. Injury 44(1): 97-10
Taylor ND, Cass DT, Holland AJ (2013) Infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis: has anything changed? J Paediatr Child Health 49(1):33-7
Soundappan SS, Holland A, Lam L, Roy G, Evans JB, Adams S, Cass DT (2010) Off-road vehicle trauma in children: a New South Wales perspective. Pediatr Emerg Care 26(12):909-13
D'Cruz R, Soundappan SS, Cass DT, Smith G (2009) Catheter balloon-related urethral trauma in children. J Paediatr Child Health 45(10):564-6
Marchant J, Cheng N, Lam LT, Fahy F, Soundappan S, Cass D, Browne GJ (2008) The role of Basic Life Support in children suffering a immersion in water. Medical Journal of Australia 188:484-5
Jones VS, Soundappan SV, Cohen RC, Pitkin J, La Hei ER, Martin HC, Cass DT (2007) Posttraumatic small bowel obstruction in children. J Pediatr Surg 42(8):1386-8
Alzahem AM, Soundappan SS, Jefferies H, Cass DT (2007) Ingested magnets and gastrointestinal complications. J Paediatr Child Health 43(6):497-8
Soundappan S, Holland A, Fahy F, Manglick P, Lam LT, Cass D (2007) Transfer of paediatric trauma patients to a tertiary paediatric trauma centre- Appropriateness and timeliness. The Journal of Trauma, Injury, Infection and Critical Care 62: 1229-33
