A reply from SMARTRISK

I was distressed to see that CMAJ had elected to publish “Taking risks with injury prevention,”1 a “commentary” that not only contained numerous inaccuracies but unfairly represented the valuable work of SMARTRISK and called the integrity of the organization into question. I was particularly distressed given that SMARTRISK was not contacted to verify the facts prior to the article's publication.

There are some points that need to be made so that they become part of the public record.

SMARTRISK is keenly aware of the need for evidence-based action and a strong link between research and practice.

SMARTRISK has in place a Research Advisory Committee with respected researchers from a multitude of backgrounds, including epidemiology, psychology, human development and behaviour, engineering, public health, emergency medicine, economics, public policy, evaluation and education. In addition, SMARTRISK has a full-time PhD Manager of Research and Evaluation, who works with respected, independent consultants to design and implement comprehensive evaluations of our programs, including the SMARTRISK Heroes show.

SMARTRISK is committed to building on the current capacity of the existing injury prevention research community. To that end, we have secured a private–public sector partnership between SMARTRISK, the Canadian Injury Research Network (CIRnet), the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) and the Insurance Bureau of Canada. SMARTRISK will facilitate a 6-member multidisciplinary team — chaired by 2 of Canada's most respected researchers, Dr. Cam Mustard at the Institute for Work and Health and Dr. Rob Brison from Queen's University — tasked with engaging researchers in a priority-setting and capacity-demonstrating process over the coming year.

SMARTRISK does not receive any public funding for the staging and delivery of SMARTRISK Heroes. All past and current evaluations have been financed from corporations such as Ford of Canada and Royal & SunAlliance.

Some of the projects that SMARTRISK is working on do receive government funding. One example of public-sector funding is our long-standing partnership with the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, which predates the most recent funding announcement of 1999. These recent funds, which have been entrusted to SMARTRISK, have been leveraged with private-sector funding and utilized throughout the province. Working in partnership with ministry officials from the Public Health and the Emergency Health Services branches, we have supported a multitude of injury prevention activities, including providing scholarships and bursaries to Ontario injury prevention practitioners to attend national and international conferences as well as academic prizes to budding injury prevention researchers, to name just two. Regular meetings are held with ministry officials to review our progress to date on specified deliverables and to develop ongoing plans based on provincial stakeholder feedback. A number of communication vehicles exist to provide provincial stakeholders with regular updates on our progress as well as to provide opportunities for input.

SMARTRISK has also brokered private-sector funding to support the Atlantic Network for Injury Prevention, the British Columbia Injury Prevention Research Centre and the Injury Prevention Centre in Manitoba to support economic burden studies in their respective provinces.

The reputation of a charity is its very lifeblood, and the publication of unsubstantiated claims runs the risk of threatening its continued existence. We therefore appreciate this opportunity to set the record straight.

Carol Jardine Chair Board of Directors SMARTRISK Toronto, Ont.