In Brazil, injuries and violence have been classified as the third or fourth leading cause of death for the population, surpassed only by cardiovascular diseases, cancer and respiratory diseases, according to data from the Institutional Development Support Program of the Unified Health System (Proadi- SUS).
The Trauma Project – Rapid Unified Data Access Technology for Accident Mitigation -, designed by the epidemiologist from the Trauma team at Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, Bruno Zocca, now enters the improvement phase, until 2026, when the main tool – a database integrated data system – will be installed at the Ministry of Health (MS). The tool will allow access to integrated data on accidents and injuries occurring across the country.
The project was developed within the Support Program for Institutional Development of the Unified Health System (Proadi-SUS), in which tax exemption amounts are used to develop advances for the SUS. Doctor Bruno Zocca explained to Brazil Agency, last Wednesday (13), that the objective is to carry out health surveillance.
In the first, experimental three-year period, between 2021 and 2023, data was accessed from some locations that became partners in the project, to test technology, system and see if the objective can be achieved. “Our goal is to be able to tell the story of an accident or violence with as little effort and resources as possible, only using the information systems already active and in use by the Ministry of Health.
The idea is to bring data from several different information systems into an integrated database. In this integrated bank, some concepts such as man and woman, feminine and masculine will be normalized and organized, standardizing them. Another thing is identifying the same person in different systems.
Tool
The doctor stated that this is an initiative “different from anything the Ministry of Health has ever done”. The project ended the first three years with a functional tool that will be developed along two main axes.
The first is to continue improving the tool. “Bring more locations and more data to continue testing whether the tool meets our needs. The second axis is to effectively pass this tool into the ministry”, said Bruno Zocca.
According to Proadi-SUS, information is currently made available to the SUS through several different information systems that are not connected. The project will change this reality and, in the long term, will help reduce morbidity and mortality associated with injuries.
When installed at the Ministry of Health, the data will be accessed centrally by the SUS Information Technology Department (Datasus) and will be available throughout Brazil. According to the creator, the integrated band can be accessed by managers at municipal, state and federal levels.
“The municipal manager will be able to see that there is a corner with a lot of traffic accidents and put up a traffic light; the state manager will be able to see that there is a block or neighborhood with many serious or non-serious cases of violence, and place a police car there. And the federal government will be able to use the tool both to evaluate its current policies and to design new public policies. Therefore, our expectation is that the Trauma project, despite our partner being the federal government, the Ministry of Health, will be a useful tool for all levels of management, for research, for non-governmental organizations (NGOs), for anyone who has interest in accessing integrated data.”
Internalization
The doctor highlighted that the project will support the ministry in its internalization, with the necessary institutional agreements and searches for financing. There are a number of secondary positive factors that will occur through the project. “The ministry carries out audits, hospitalizations, and death investigations to see if the registered cause is adequate. Trauma can support many secondary initiatives.”
The main objective is health surveillance. “It is a very large and powerful database. We have been talking to many partners inside and outside the ministry about other potential uses.” Public Security Secretariats will be able to use the data, as well as teams from the Mobile Emergency Care Service (Samu) and firefighters to improve the dynamics of pre-hospital and ambulance care, among other segments.
The tool will be ready to be installed at the Ministry of Health in 2026.
“Our objective is that, at the end of the three-year period, the final version will be ready, installed within the ministry, for open use by all entities interested in the database. Anyone who needs this data will have access to the tool. We are even designing different entrances for different users. One of the nuances, and which is also one of the challenges, is to be careful with information security. Therefore, when releasing it for public access, great care must be taken with the security of the information when handling the data and moving it from one place to another. That will continue to be one of the concerns,” said Zocca.
According to the expert, the intention is for the entire country to have access to the tool in the coming years to produce health situation analyses, in order to allow, in the long term, the monitoring of 12 million hospitalizations and 4 billion outpatient visits. and more than 1.5 million deaths each year.
Investment
Bruno Zocca informed that the source of financing for the development of the Trauma Project is Proadi-SUS itself, which brings together six non-profit hospitals, considered a reference in medical-care quality and management. They are Hospital Alemão Oswaldo Cruz, Beneficência Portuguesa de São Paulo, HCor, Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, Hospital Moinhos de Vento and Hospital Sírio-Libanês. Proadi-SUS resources come from the tax immunity of participating hospitals.
In the first three years of project development, investments reached R$6.5 million. For the second stage, from 2024 to 2026, the spending forecast is R$7.9 million.
Proadi-SUS
The Support Program for the Institutional Development of the Unified Health System (Proadi-SUS) was created in 2009 with the purpose of supporting and improving the SUS through human resources training projects, research, evaluation and incorporation of technologies, management and specialized assistance required by the Ministry of Health.
The projects bring to the population the expertise of hospitals in initiatives that meet the needs of the SUS. Among the main benefits of the program, the reduction of waiting lines stands out; qualification of professionals; research of public health interest for the current needs of the Brazilian population; care management supported by artificial intelligence and improving the management of public and philanthropic hospitals throughout Brazil.
Injuries and violence have been ranked as the third or fourth leading cause of death in the country, surpassed only by cardiovascular diseases and cancer until 2015, by respiratory diseases between 2016 and 2019, and by Covid-19 during the pandemic. In 2021, there were 149,322 deaths attributed to injuries in Brazil, which is equivalent to around 70 deaths per 100,000 Brazilians. Among these causes, homicides prevailed (30.5%), followed by traffic accidents (23.5%), other accidental causes (23.2%) and suicides (10.4%). Data provided by Proadi-SUS, through its press office, highlights the importance of injuries among young people and men in premature mortality and disability, which makes them a priority issue in the country.
With information from Agência Brasil
