Proceedings from the Second Medical Summit on Firearm Injury Prevention, 2022: Creating a sustainable healthcare coalition to advance a multidisciplinary public health approach

In 2019, the American College of Surgeons (ACS) hosted the inaugural Medical Summit on Firearm Injury Prevention. The Summit convened representatives from 44 major medical, public health, and injury prevention professional organizations with a goal to develop consensus on collaborative opportunities to address the growing problem of firearm-related injury and death in the US.1 The attendees and organizers of the inaugural Medical Summit described a multifaceted, comprehensive public health and medical approach to reducing firearm injury, death, and disability. Haddon’s matrices were created for the major intents of firearm-related injury (suicide, interpersonal violence, and unintentional injury) with a detailed description of injury prevention initiatives in each area. In addition, 47 organizations subsequently agreed to 9 consensus statements focused on defining this public health approach (Table 1). The statements highlighted the importance of federal funding for research, the importance of engaging firearm owners and communities at risk for firearm-related injury in developing interventions, the role of healthcare professionals in screening for risk factors and counseling patients for injury prevention, and the role of hospitals and healthcare systems in addressing the social determinants of health in communities disproportionately impacted by violence. The final consensus statement was a commitment from all participating organizations to continue to work together to implement these strategies.