• Isabella Menchetti, Madison Muzzo, Christian Malo, Alun Ackery, Joe Nemeth, Jagadish Rao, Paul T Engels, Kelly Vogt, Tarek Razek, Andrew Beckett, and da LuzLuisLDepartment of General Surgery, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada..
• Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Ottawa, The Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa, ON, Canada. imenchetti@toh.ca.
• CJEM. 2023 Dec 1; 25 (12): 959967959-967.

ObjectivesTrauma Team Leaders (TTLs) are critical for coordinating and leading trauma resuscitations. This survey sought to characterize the demographics and professional practices of Canadian TTLs at level one trauma centres. As a secondary objective, this information will be utilized to inform the operational goals of the Trauma Association of Canada (TAC) TTL Committee.MethodsA detailed survey, developed by the TAC board of directors and TTL committee leads, was sent to 225 TTLs across Canada's level one trauma centres. TTLs were identified via contacting trauma directors at each level one centre, in addition to public registry searches. This survey captured demographics, professional background, resuscitation practices, trauma team composition, and TTL involvement in trauma responses.ResultsThe response rate was 41.7%. Mean respondent age was 42 (SD 7.4) and 71.0% were male. Most TTLs trained in emergency medicine (53.1%) or general surgery (25.5%); 63.8% underwent TTL training: either via a trauma surgery fellowship or TTL fellowship. All centres have a massive hemorrhage protocol implemented, and there is no large variation between the rates of use of cryoprecipitate and fibrinogen, nor the ratio of blood products transfused (2:1 vs 1:1). Most TTL respondents intend to participate in a TTL group associated with TAC (85.1%).ConclusionThe results of this survey will contribute to the recognition of TTLs as a crucial role in the initial phase of care of severely injured trauma patients and serves as the first publication to document professional backgrounds and practices of Canadian TTLs at level one trauma centres. All the information gathered via this survey will be used by the TAC TTL Committee, which will focus on several initiatives such as the dissemination of best practice guidelines and creation of a TTL stream at the TAC Annual Conference.© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians (CAEP)/ Association Canadienne de Médecine d'Urgence (ACMU).

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