CIREN was established in 1996 and is a multi-center research program involving a collaboration of clinicians and engineers in academia, industry, and government. Level 1 Trauma Centers are linked together through a computer network associated with this research program. Each Center collects detailed crash and medical data on approximately 50 motor vehicle crashes per year. After the necessary coding and quality control takes place, the information is added to a database on the computer network linking the centers. The CIREN database consists of multiple discrete fields of data concerning these crashes, including crash reconstruction and medical injury profiles. Personal and location identifiers and highly sensitive medical information have been removed from the public files to protect patient confidentiality.