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#ThisIsOurLane: Incorporating Gun Violence Prevention into Clinical Care

  • Gun Violence (P Masiakos, Section Editor)
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

This article reviews the medical community’s evolving perspective on its role in gun violence prevention efforts, particularly evaluating the evidence for and potential impact of patient education and firearm safety counseling.

Recent Findings

Growing numbers of physicians and professional medical societies recognize gun violence as a public health crisis and are increasingly supporting a more active role for the profession to address it. In spite of this urging, relatively few physicians routinely address firearm safety with their patients, in part driven by a lack of standardized education about how to incorporate gun violence prevention into clinical care.

Summary

Clinicians have a unique opportunity to prevent firearm-related injuries and death by performing firearm safety screening and violence prevention counseling at the bedside. With growing evidence for the effectiveness of such counseling and increasing number of widely available resources, clinicians across medical disciplines are well positioned to address this unmet need.

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Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 100 Cambridge Street., Suite 1600, Boston, MA, 02114, USA

    Sejal Hathi & Chana A. Sacks

  2. Mongan Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Chana A. Sacks

Authors
  1. Sejal Hathi
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  2. Chana A. Sacks
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Correspondence to Chana A. Sacks.

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Conflict of Interest

CAS receives support from the Carney Family Foundation. Dr. Sacks and Dr. Hathi have nothing to disclose.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Gun Violence

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Hathi, S., Sacks, C.A. #ThisIsOurLane: Incorporating Gun Violence Prevention into Clinical Care. Curr Trauma Rep 5, 169–173 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40719-019-00174-6

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