"Zero Preventable Deaths and Minimizing Disability"-The Challenge Set Forth by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

The key to developing a national trauma system is to have joint military and civilian collaboration. Orthopaedics has demonstrated leadership in this arena for both clinical and research collaboration. In 2007, the OTA launched its Distinguished Visiting Scholars Program, and since then, 52 US civilian orthopaedic surgeons have spent time at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, a US military hospital in Germany. The program was a collaborative bilateral exchange of lessons learned between leaders in civilian orthopaedic trauma and the military orthopaedic surgeons caring for the combat-injured en route back to the United States. The EWI Symposium has also provided a unique forum to bring together experts in civilian and military orthopaedic trauma care to share care experiences, lessons learned, and to identify and prioritize current knowledge gaps. In addition, through consortiums such as METRC, BADER, and AFIRM, significant gains are being made to improve the quality of trauma care. This military-civilian linkage is critical to ensure full transfer of lessons learned between the two sectors, which can only result in emergency and trauma care delivery system improvements. Such collaborations will not only help achieve the authors' goal of zero preventable deaths but also reduce the even greater costs associated with chronic disability.