Firearm Injury Surveillance Through Emergency Rooms (FASTER)
Notice of Funding Opportunity
Firearm Injury Surveillance Through Emergency Rooms (FASTER) CDC-RFA-CE20-2005external icon will fund up to seven recipients to improve the timeliness of surveillance of Emergency Department (ED) visits for nonfatal firearm injuries.
Firearm deaths and injuries are a serious public health problem in the United States. In 2018 (the latest year of available data), 39,740 people died as a result of a firearm-related injury. Many more people suffer nonfatal firearm-related injuries. People hospitalized with nonfatal gunshot wounds often experience long-term consequences, including physical disabilities and chronic mental health problems from conditions such as post-traumatic-stress disorder. The economic impact of firearm injury and mortality costs the United States billions of dollars each year in medical and lost productivity costs alone. An understanding of the full extent of the problem is crucial to informing prevention strategies and reducing future incidents.
Timely state- and local-level data on ED visits for nonfatal firearm injuries are currently limited. The collection of near real-time data on ED visits for nonfatal firearm injuries overall and by intent (i.e., intentional self-directed, unintentional, and assault-related) at the state- and local-level could improve practitioners’ ability to identify and respond to emerging public health problems.
The goal of this NOFO is for recipients to improve the timeliness of surveillance of ED visits for nonfatal firearm injuries. Collaboration will include sharing data in order to improve syndrome definitions, data collection methods, analysis of surveillance data, and presentation and dissemination of findings. This NOFO will serve as a pilot to demonstrate the feasibility of monitoring nonfatal firearm injuries using syndromic surveillance data. Additionally, this collaborative NOFO will result in tools and methods that can be used by state and local health departments across the nation to rapidly track and respond to firearm injuries.
Specifically, recipients are asked to:
- Increase the timeliness of aggregate reporting of ED visits for nonfatal firearm injuries.
- Disseminate surveillance findings to key stakeholders working to prevent or respond to firearm injuries.
Enhanced surveillance will provide the timely data on nonfatal firearm injuries that key stakeholders need to inform and improve prevention and response efforts.
Firearm Injury Surveillance Through Emergency Rooms (FASTER) NOFOexternal icon
- Full Announcement pdf icon[PDF – 351 KB]
- Appendix 1 pdf icon[PDF – 60 KB]
- Appendix 2 pdf icon[PDF – 16 KB]
Addition Information
- Informational Call Slide Show pdf icon[PDF – 407 KB]
- NOFO FAQs pdf icon[PDF – 143 KB]
- Additional NOFO FAQs pdf icon[PDF – 108 KB]
- Informational Call Transcript txt icon[TXT – 55 KB]
- Note: There is a slight delay/silence at the 30 second mark.
For more information about DVP or to speak with one of our staff, please email FASTERNOFO@cdc.gov