Harborview pediatrician and injury prevention researcher Fred Rivara named to Board on Children, Youth and Families of the National Academy of Sciences

Harborview pediatrician and injury prevention expert Frederick "Fred" P. Rivara has been named to the Board of Children, Youth, and Families of the National Academy of Sciences.

The Board addresses a variety of policy-relevant issues in the health and development of children, youth, and families. It convenes experts to weigh in on these matters from the perspective of behavioral, social, and health sciences. Among the topics the Board works on are pregnancy, birth, and infant health; child development; adolescence; mental health; and international health issues affecting children, teens, and their families. The Board was created in 1993 under the joint aegis of the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine.

Rivara is the George Adkins Professor of Pediatrics at the UW. He heads the UW Division of General Pediatrics and is a memberf of the UW Child Health Institute. He is an attending physician at Harborview Medical Center and at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle.

At the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center, he has devoted his career to discovering preventive measures for bicycle accidents, pedestrian collisions, motor vehicle crashes, alcohol-related trauma, self-inflicted wounds, or attacks on other people.

He is examining the cost-effectiveness of trauma care, the impact of domestic violence on women and children, and the effectiveness of interventions in childhood and adolescence on later health outcomes. His goal is to call public attention to interventions and policies that might have a long-term effect in improving the health of children as they grow into adults.

Rivara is a member of the Institute of Medicine section on public health, biostatistics, and epidemiology. He received his M.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.