SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – Last month, there were 85 mass shootings in the U.S., according to the Gun Violence Archive, bringing the annual total to 423 so far. While gun violence is often seen as a social – or political – problem, some medical experts also see it as a public health issue.
Dr. Jahan Fahimi, medical director of the UCSF emergency department, is one of them. His research aims to better understand the epidemiology of gun violence in the U.S., and his work focuses on treating the gun violence epidemic from patient bedsides.
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“What we’re seeing is more physicians and health care workers really kind of taking ownership of firearm injuries as part of what it is that we do in health care,” he told KCBS Radio’s Alice Wertz on “As Prescribed” most recent epiode. “We’re seeing more physician advocates really stepping up and trying to change the way we advocate for… gun laws.”
Last year, Fahimi and a group of researchers published a project about firearm violence education for medical professionals.
“Firearm injury is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States,” said the publication. “However, many medical professionals currently receive minimal or no education on firearm injury or its prevention.”
Together, the experts provided guidelines for firearm injury education going forward. They “outlined seven categories previously identified in medical research as priorities,” said UCSF.
“I think many times people consider it as one entity – as one thing that occurs in our society. But in reality, it’s multiple different phenomenon that are coming together that we lumped together,” Fahimi said of gun violence. “And so, while we oftentimes spend a lot of media attention on mass violence, that makes up about 1% of injuries and deaths that we see from gun violence nationally. The leading cause of deaths by firearms is suicide”
Fahimi said that gun-related homicide is also becoming an increasingly common cause of death in the U.S., with numbers catching up to death by suicide. As of Thursday, the Gun Violence Archive estimated that there had been 14,190 gun-related suicide deaths in the U.S. this year, compared to 11,243 deaths under a category that includes homicide, murder, defense and accidents.
According to Pew Research Center polling results released in June, most Americans (60%) believe that gun violence is a “very big problem” in the U.S. today. Even more (62%) believe that gun violence will increase over the next five years.
However, work being done with help from UCSF – including the guidelines developed by Fahimi and others, as well as the Wraparound Project – could be key to stopping the acceleration of gun violence.
“I’m hoping that the next generations of doctors and nurses will really be well versed in this in a way that we can be leaders in preventing gun violence from happening in the first place,” Fahimi said.
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