The BCIRPU turned 25 in 2023/2024. We celebrated our silver anniversary with a full-day symposium on October 11, 2023.

We've created a timeline of the BCIRPU's origins, notable research projects, and influential points in time throughout the history of injury prevention in BC. Click on each link to view the timeline in PDF format, broken down into five segments.

1996–2004
2005–2009
2010–2014
2015–2019
2020–2024

Highlights of the BCIRPU since its inception:

• Since opening its doors in 1998, the BCIRPU has published more than 240 peer-reviewed journal articles, and over 220 reports.
• The BCIRPU's first systematic review was published in 2001: Sports and Recreation Injury Prevention Strategies: Systematic Review and Best Practices (PDF).
• The Emergency Department Injury Surveillance System (EDISS) project (2000-2003) was a large-scale project, collecting data from emergency departments at ten hospitals.
• The first iteration of the widely-used seniors fall prevention resource, Strategies and Actions for Independent Living© (SAIL), debuted in 2003.
• 2006 marked the formation of a strategic partnership with The Community Against Preventable Injuries (Preventable) social marketing campaign, a relationship that continues today.
• BCIRPU completed evidence reviews and syntheses to support the bill that led to the updating of the BC Motor Vehicle Act in 2008 to improve child restraint safety in vehicles.
• The Injury Data Online Tool© (iDOT) launched in 2008.
• 2006–2010: BCIRPU researchers developed 34 national injury indicators for children and youth, and 27 for First Nations and Inuit children and youth.
• The Concussion Awareness Training Tool (CATT) for Medical Professionals was created in 2013. The tool expanded in subsequent years to 8 modules. cattonline.com receives over 100,000 visits a year.
• The foundations of Dr. Mariana Brussoni's work on outdoor risky play are laid after the publication of a 2012 manuscript and a sold-out workshop on risky play at the 2013 Canadian Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Conference in Montreal, QC.
• 2010–2015: BCIRPU researchers and their Canadian colleagues received a five-year Team Grant in Child and Youth Injury Prevention from CIHR. The CIHR Team published over 140 peer-reviewed manuscripts, made 185 invited presentations, co-developed a graduate level workshop course in injury research methodology, leveraged additional research grants totalling more than $8 million, and recruited/trained over 60 trainees (supported by a trainee network).
• In 2017, three provincial priorities for injury prevention were established: transport-related injuries; community-dwelling seniors' falls and fall-related injury; and youth suicide and self-harm.
• A 2018 study demonstrated that the Period of PURPLE Crying© program, delivered by Prevent Shaken Baby Syndrome BC, is associated with a 35% reduction in the number of children under two admitted to BC hospitals with shaking-related injuries.
• In 2018, UBC Vancouver was named a study site for the national study, Surveillance in High School to Reduce Concussions and Consequences of Concussions in Canadian Youth: SHRed Concussions (Funder: National Football League). BCIRPU researchers coordinated operations of the Vancouver study site.
• In 2022, 5 new injury prevention lead positions in the regional health authorities were created. These individuals are BCCDC employees and members of the BCIRPU.
• In 2022, BCIRPU, Parachute, and BC Centre for Disease Control hosted the 2022 Canadian Injury Prevention Conference in Vancouver, BC. This was the first national injury prevention conference in Canada in over ten years.
• In 2023, BCIRPU researchers received $1.6 million in funding to deliver FireSafe, a smoke alarm safety campaign to reduce fire-related injury and death in BC, in partnership with Preventable and the Office of the Fire Commissioner.