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Surgical Innovation
December 22, 2021

The Bullet Related Injury Clinic—Healing the Deep Wounds of Gun Violence

Author Affiliations
  • 1The T, St Louis, Missouri
  • 2Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, St Louis, Missouri
JAMA Surg. 2022;157(2):167-168. doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2021.4889

The Bullet Related Injury Clinic (BRIC) is an innovative program that seeks to address a common gap in care for people who have had bullet-related injury (BRI), an experience that disproportionately affects young Black men.1 In the US, there is an annual average of more than 85 000 emergency department (ED) visits for nonfatal bullet injury and approximately 70% of patients are discharged from the ED to self-care without hospital admission.1 Yet, as bullets often affect otherwise healthy individuals who have no prior wound care experience, most survivors are not prepared to properly manage their pain and wounds. The degree of suffering and uncertainty experienced in the aftermath of BRI became acutely apparent to us through our community engagement, as we have worked to bring the national Stop the Bleed campaign to communities at high risk for BRI.2 Warranted mistrust and structural barriers create obstacles for people who have experienced BRI, creating a body of unmet need in which neither the physical, psychological, nor social manifestations of BRI are adequately addressed.

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