News & Events

UCSF News reports on the significant increase of bicycle accidents in riders over age 45 as discussed in a study, published in the Sept. 1st edition of JAMA and co-authored by Rachael Callcut, M.D., M.S.P.H., Assistant Professor of Surgery at the UCSF Department of Surgery at SFGH.  The incidence of bicycle accidents has increased significantly in the U.S. in recent years, with many serious injuries occurring among riders older than 45, according to a new study led by UC San Francisco. The researchers used a national injury surveillance database to study trends in bicycle injuries from [...]

The American College of Surgeons recently announced that M. Margaret Knudson, MD, FACS, Professor of Surgery and trauma surgeon at the San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, has joined the Division of Member Services of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) as Medical Director for the Military Health System (MHS) Strategic-ACS Partnership. The partnership was officially launched with the signing of a charter during Clinical Congress 2014. Dr. Knudson will oversee the partnership and assist with the development of education, systems-based practices, and research to maintain and [...]

KRON4 in San Francisco reports on an innnovative game, developed by UCSF trauma surgeon, M. Margaret "Peggy" Knudson, MD, that teaches traffic safety to children.  SFGate, the sister-site of the San Francisco Chronicle, discusses the game in depth: A group of third-graders waved their hands and screamed - "Stop!" - as a car slowly backed toward them from a garage.The children weren't in danger of becoming San Francisco's latest pedestrian casualties, though. They were one of many groups of students who gathered at Lakeshore Elementary in San Francisco to try out an innovative workshop that [...]

Gina Kolata, health reporter for the NY Times, reports on the controversy surrounding bicycle safety and studies by UCSF trauma surgeons demonstrating that serious accidents may be significantly underreported: Until his bike slid out of control while he was going 35 miles an hour downhill around a sharp turn, Dr. Harold Schwartz thought cycling accidents were something that happened to other people. Now, after recovering from a fractured pelvis, Dr. Schwartz, 65, the vice president for behavioral health at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut, has changed his mind. "No one is immune," he said [...]

UCSF News reports on the efforts of the trauma  team at San Francisco General Hospital that treated victims of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 that crashed while landing in San Francisco in July 2013. The team included UCSF Department of Surgery trauma surgeons M. Margaret Knudson, M.D. and Andre Campbell, M.D., and Rachael A. Callcut, M.D., M.S.P.H.. They arrived at SFGH within hours of the disaster: On the morning of July 6, M. Margaret Knudson, MD, chief of surgery at SFGH, worked with Campbell and others on site to begin assembling a team that would be ready to triage patients upon their [...]

UCSF News reports on the research of Dr. Rochelle Dicker and her team into pedestrian accident injury in San Francisco:  San Francisco General Hospital trauma surgeon Rochelle Dicker has treated many pedestrians who ended up in the emergency room after being struck by vehicles. She never refers to those collisions as accidents. "An accident implies there is nothing we can do about it. Like it's an act of God. But an injury or crash implies that there is something we can do to potentially reduce risk and prevent harm," said Dicker, MD, one of the directors of the San Francisco Injury Center [...]

KALW, a local public radio program, hosted a program discussing the danger to pedestirians walking the streets of  in San Francisco: At some point in our day, most of us are pedestrians walking the 7x7 swatch of land we know as San Francisco. The city's relatively small size, temperate weather, and inviting neighborhoods make San Francisco inherently walkable. Yet statistics tell a very different story. San Francisco is one of the most dangerous cities for pedestrians nationwide with over 800 people hit by cars here each year--that's between 2 and 3 pedestrians a day........ We've gathered [...]

SFGate, the sister-site of the San Francisco Chronicle, reports on the toll of pedestrian injuires in San Francisco where two to three people are hit by cars every day:  Two to three people are hit by cars every day on San Francisco's dangerously motorized streets, and researchers are beginning to paint a clearer picture of the economic toll. The more than 800 pedestrian crashes a year are racking up a $76 million bill for injuries, reports the Pedestrian Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC), and advocates say it's imperative the city invest in preventative measures......... The statistics [...]

M. Margaret Knudson, MD, FACS  (center) was awarded the 2010 National Safety Council Surgeon's Award for Service to Safety at the Trauma Reception at the AAST Annual Meeting in Boston, MA. for her visionary leadership in injury prevention and control, and lifelong commitment to the care of injured patients that has saved countless lives." The award was presented by L.D. Britt, MD, FACS, ACS President and President of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (left) and Michael F. Rotondo, MD, FACS, Chair, Committee on Trauma.

SFGate, the sister-site of the San Francisco Chronicle, reports on a new study that suggests that the city could not only save millions, but also improve the quality of life for some of the city's neediest residents: Facing a $522 million budget deficit, San Francisco needs to look at every possible way to save money. A new study from the San Francisco Injury Center points to one place that could not only save millions, but also improve the quality of life for some of the city's neediest residents.The issue is pedestrian safety. San Francisco is routinely cited as having the highest rate [...]

UCSF News reports on the SGFH-based San Francisco Injury Center Research and Prevention and its innovative research to to treat, understand and prevent traumatic injuries: For the past 20 years, the San Francisco Injury Center for Research and Prevention (SFIC) has been working to treat, understand and prevent traumatic injuries and to establish practices that serve as national and international models. Whether an injury is caused by a fall, a firearm or a motor vehicle crash, the multidisciplinary investigators at the SFIC view it the same way: as a condition that must be treated using [...]