The contemporary evaluation of trauma outcomes

Injury is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Both can be reduced by prompt, systematic care. However, assessing or comparing outcomes over time or between regions is difficult without consistent injury severity assessments. The Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) is a severity-weighted injury classification system. AIS-derived summary scores can describe the severity of injured individuals and populations, and underpin many aspects of injury care. Injury diagnosis and management change over time. This thesis aims to develop and evaluate AIS-derived tools enabling the consistent prediction of fatal and non-fatal outcomes following injury, and to identify principles ensuring ongoing AIS relevancy.