American University of Beirut

​​​Injuries are the leading cause of deaths and disabilities in people younger than 44 years of age. Recent estimates from the Global Burden of Disease suggest that the global number of injuryrelated deaths surpassed 4.4 million individuals in 2018. Injury disproportionally burdens lowand middle- income countries (LMICs) where lack of preventative measures and under-resourced healthcare systems contribute to increased rates of injury morbidity and mortality. Like many LMICs, Lebanon suffers from a substantial burden of injury that claims the lives of hundreds of Lebanese individuals annually and overstrains its limited-resource healthcare system. To date, Lebanon lacks injury surveillance systems and qualified injury practitioners capable of collecting injury-associated information to inform the development of injury preventive programs and policy.

In this context and as an advocate for public health and a leader in public health education and research, the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) at the American University of Beirut (AUB) is launching the​ first injury prevention training and capacity building program at AUB. This program will present FHS as a national hub​ in leading injury training in Lebanon and the region.

The primary objective of these capacity building efforts will be to translate injury research into academic education and community training for health professionals and practitioners to improve their understanding of the core principles and practices of injury prevention and to develop research competencies to design effective surveillance systems, conduct rigorous injury research and evaluate intervention programs and policies.

With the aim of highlighting the ​relevance of injury prevention training and education and to enhance knowledge in the field of injury prevention, the program will offer two main training workshops by Dr. Samar Al Hajj, Assistant Research Professor at FHS, and Dr. Ian Pike, Professor at the University of British Columbia and Director of The BC Injury Research and Prevention Unit, BC Children’s’ Hospital Research Institute​: