The study, published in the December 1998 Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, was based on motor vehicle death rates collected from 1989 to 1993 by the National Center for Health Statistics and U.S. Department of Transportation data. Per billion miles of vehicle travel, black children ages 5 to 12 were almost three times as likely to die as were white children, Baker found. Hispanic children were almost twice as likely to die. Several studies have shown that black and Hispanic children are placed in safety belts or child restraints less often than white children. Research, including a national breath alcohol survey, also suggests that alcohol use is involved in more accidents involving Hispanics and blacks.
Further research is needed to confirm and expand on such studies, say the authors.
Passengers on Renaissance Cruise Lines will soon be only a computer link away from physicians at the Johns Hopkins Emergency Department. Within minutes, an emergency physician will review the images and then discuss the case over the phone with the ship's doctor and nurse. He anticipates that the telemedicine link will be used most often for heart attacks, stroke, respiratory problems, or injuries. Engineers at Hopkins's Applied Physics Laboratory are performing the technical wizardry behind the connection. They have engineered similar telemedicine links between Hopkins and a dozen Navy ships.