CDC’s Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS) makes injury data available to the public on the CDC website. In 2008, CDC contracted PIRE to produce a cost module to complement the WISQARS incidence data with estimates of medical costs and work loss. The result was the WISQARS Cost of Injury Reports. More recently, CDC contracted with PIRE to produce estimates of lost quality of life to supplement the medical costs and work loss. New estimates were made to quality of life lost to nonfatal injuries by NEISS injury diagnosis and body part and patient age. Beginning with estimates of impairment severity and duration in six dimensions (mobility, cognitive, cosmetic, sensory, pain, daily living) from a panel of medical experts and estimates of work disability drawn from worker’s compensation data, the expected quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) lost as a result of injury were computed. They were then monetized, using CDC’s preferred value of statistical life (VSL) to produce estimates of lost quality of life for the WISQARS Cost of Injury Reports. The main datasets used were the 2010 NIS (Nationwide Inpatient Sample) and NEDS (Nationwide Emergency Department Sample), both produced by AHRQ, and several years of NEISS-AIP.
