JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Firearm violence in America is widespread, yet a complete understanding of the public health burden is largely unknown. Current surveillance of firearm injury is largely limited to acute injury and mortality data and does not include physical or psychological injury where such injury did not result in acute care utilization or death. Collecting broad surveillance data is needed to fully frame the impact of firearm violence on society.

Objective:

To assess the feasibility of using ambulatory electronic health record data to expand firearm injury surveillance which is currently largely limited to emergency departments and inpatient acute care injury and mortality data.

Methods:

We compared demographics, and availability of demographic and clinical variables, from electronic health record (EHR) data from 238 safety net ambulatory care clinics where patients self-reported an exposure to gun violence to population-based surveillance datasets commonly used in firearm injury surveillance and research.

Results:

Across 238 clinics, 3,165 patients reported a recent or past exposure to gun violence. Among this group, 52.6% are male, 38.3% Black, 45.7% have post-traumatic stress disorder, 37.5% have a substance abuse disorder (other than nicotine) and 11.7% have hypertension. The demographic distribution of patients from the ambulatory EHR group varies by gender, age and race/ethnicity when compared to other available population-based datasets.

Conclusions:

Current surveillance on firearm violence is limited. Collecting standardized data in ambulatory care settings within EHRs is feasible and can improve our understanding of the risk factors and health impacts associated with firearm violence.