Louis Francescutti a dean

Renowned injury specialist sees much potential in new position

World-renowned injury control researcher Dr. Louis Hugo Francescutti has a great opportunity before him. The well-known Italian-Canadian physician and lecturer was recently named, from a group of 31 highly qualified candidates, Campus Dean NOMS-West at Thunder Bay's Lakehead University. He will take over the position full-time in July, but recently began two days a week, traveling from the University of Alberta's Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry in Edmonton, where he currently is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences and the Division of Emergency Medicine. "I use the time commuting for paperwork," he says.
Dr. Francescutti has done very well for "a kid who couldn't speak a word of English in grade one." He grew up in Montreal in the Fifties, speaking Italian at home with his parents from Udine. "I still remember my teacher coming home every day to help me with English," he recalls. After receiving his B.Sc. at Concordia he did a combined MD/Ph.D. at the University of Alberta, and later a Master of Public Health degree and Preventative Medicine Residency at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University.
During his 22 years in Edmonton he developed the original award-winning multimedia injury prevention programme for teenagers called HEROES. He helped establish the Alberta Centre for Injury Control and Research, and directed the design of special software that helps paramedics better do their job. He has made a name for himself going after injuries very aggressively. He is known to say that "there is no such thing as an accident."
"I have built a career trying to get people to view all injuries as a disease, to apply the same principles and epidemiology - use terms like host and agent," he says.
Francescutti's vision includes viewing all injuries as preventable, as he is persuasive as he explains it. "You need to understand there are two varieties of injuries," he states, "intentional, which can be personal, like suicide, and interpersonal violence, (child abuse, domestic violence, etc.). Then there is unintentional injury, which can be divided into motor vehicle and all the other stuff, whether is poisoning, falls, cuts." Using the example of falling off a dock he illustrates this further, by asking the important question of why. "Are you drunk? Is the dock not built right? Or if you slip on the ice, is it because no one put salt on it, because your shoes are poorly made, or you have trouble walking?"
Francescutti believes that "injury is one of the most obviously hidden epidemics."
"The public is habituated by the media," he continues. "The front page, the top stories on the TV news are always injury related. But stop and look, what is it? It is a disease. The media refers to it as a 'freak accident'. When was the last time you heard of a freak heart attack? Or that 'she developed freak breast cancer'? It doesn't happen."
With his new position as Campus Dean for NOMS-West, which is a joint partnership between Lakehead and Laurentian Universities forming a new medical school for the whole of Northern Ontario, Francescutti hope to change people's thinking to realize that the only cure for trauma is its prevention. He is keen on helping groups from those in industry, the coroner, police and domestic violence groups.
"I am going to hang up a sign that says 'Anyone interested in conquering injury please come see the Dean of NOMS.'
He is excited to come in at the ground level at Lakehead. Francescutti is also happy to be working with Dr. Roger Strasser, the founding dean of the overall school, for whom he has great respect. "Our visions are aligned overall," he explains. Francescutti believes that they will be a good fit, along with Sudbury Campus Dean Tim Allen. "With NOMS, we have the opportunity to change the landscape of medical education in this country."

Publication Date: 2003-01-26
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=2284