Center for Child Injury Prevention Studies (CChIPS)
Treating Children as Children
The Center for Child Injury Prevention Studies (CChIPS) at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is catalyzed by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF 
) Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) program.
An I/UCRC is a consortium of companies and federal agencies working with university faculty and students to conduct industrially relevant research in an emerging field. Through the CChIPS partnership, researchers at Children’s Hospital and the University of Pennsylvania are investigating ways to prevent childhood injuries- particularly those caused by motor vehicle crashes.
This synergistic collaboration between industry and academia is an ideal environment in which to generate ideas for new research projects and to leverage shared expertise and resources. Uniting these communities creates an opportunity for industry to respond to market-driven needs and/or legislative mandates, and by allowing academic researchers to respond to newly-identified hazards and risky behaviors based on surveillance and clinical experience.
CChIPS Mission
The CChIPS mission is to advance the safety of children, youth and young adults (through age 24) by facilitating scientific inquiry into childhood and young adult injuries, and to translate these findings into commercial applications and public education programs for prevention.
Children are not small adults. Findings that apply to adult injury do not translate to the realm of children and young adults, whose bodies are still developing and react differently to trauma. Children’s injuries must be studied separately, in order to ensure their optimal protection and treatment.
CChIPS Areas of Research
Currently, all CChIPS research is focused on the prevention of the largest killer of children, youth, and young adults – traffic injury. The project may expand to include other causes of injury in the future.
The scope of the research projects undertaken at CChIPS fall into the following categories:
- Injury biomechanics, mechanisms, and tolerance.
- Technological solutions - design, development and testing.
- Human interaction with and behavior related to safety technology.
- Education and promotion of safety.
- Evaluation and cost effectiveness of safety devices or unsafe behavior modification programs.
More information about CChIPS:
Our Research
