This website contains information for physicians and patients alike. Much of the material it taken from the textbook, Foreman SM, Croft AC (eds): Foreman SM, Croft AC (eds): Whiplash Injuries: the Cervical Acceleration/Deceleration Syndrome, 3rd edition, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore, 2001. Other information is available from Whiplash in Hypertext 3.0, a software program available from the Spine Research Institute of San Diego. This website, however, provides only a fraction of the material contained in the more than 500 pages of the book. Some of the references are provided numerically in parentheses and the numbers correspond to the reference list provided on this website. In other sections, we present only a synthesis of that literature.




The subject of whiplash is expected by many to be one of controversy. The controversy, however, is largely manufactured. It is propagated by those who benefit from it or those who are simply uninformed. In contrast, recognizing that the condition-in all its manifestations-is a real and significant public health burden, international consortia of automobile insurers from North America to Europe, Japan to Australia, are actively engaged in whiplash research. The research conducted by the Spine Research Institute of San Diego (SRISD), for example, compliments that of the European Whiplash Consortium and the International Insurance Whiplash Prevention Group (IIWPG) formed by Allianz Zentrum fur Technik (AZT), the German Insurance Institute for Traffic Engineering (GDV), the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), and the Motor Insurance Repair Research Center (MIRRC), Thatcham. The National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has also been continuously engaged in whiplash research for many years. SRISD has also worked with members of these international groups in the validation of the highly specialized rear impact dummies, the RID2 (First Technology Safety Systems) and the BioRID II (Denton ATD, Inc). International whiplash conferences take place annually in Europe and the U.S., attracting researchers, clinicians, governmental representatives, manufacturers, and educators from all parts of the globe who come together to present their research and to learn from others how best to deal with this growing pandemic. Conspicuously absent from these meetings are the purveyors of the very small body of literature which suggests that true whiplash injuries are unlikely, insignificant, and primarily the product of greed and avarice.

The triangular politics (manufacturers/OEMs, insurers, governments and their people) at the surface is complex, but is not the subject of this website. We hope this site will stimulate interest and personal exploration. As time goes on, we will continue to add useful and timely information.

A note for whiplash victims

The website is not intended as a substitute for direct contact with your doctor, whose advice you should always seek when making decisions concerning your health. The Spine Research Institute of San Diego does not necessarily endorse the opinions or suggestions of the many authors mentioned on this website. If you are uncertain whether any of the exercises or other general advice offered here are applicable to your special needs, again, we suggest that you consult your heath care provider.

The Spine Research Institute of San Diego is a private research organization founded in 1984 by Arthur C. Croft, DC, MS, MPH. Since that time the institute has been actively engaged in the synthesis and dissemination of information relating to a wide range of injuries and conditions arising out of motor vehicle trauma, with a special focus on the most common forms of clinical conditions which impose the greatest public health burden today-a burden shared by private citizens, their health care providers, private insurers, automobile manufacturers, and state and local government.

Since 1999, the institute has also conducted various types of car-to-car crash testing, using human subjects and crash test dummies, to gain insight into occupant-vehicle interactions with a variety of goals. These have included the testing and validation of special rear impact dummy (RID) anthropometric test devices, the validation of automobile crash reconstruction methodologies, and to gain a better understanding as to how changes in vehicle construction and enhanced public knowledge about motor vehicle safety might help to reduce the current pandemic of whiplash and mild traumatic brain

Inquiries

The Spine Research Institute of San Diego is not a treatment or surgical center and is not engaged in patient care. It is, therefore, not staffed with practicing physicians and is not able to provide medical advice or assistance to practitioners or to the public. While we encourage thoughtful and helpful letters from the public, practicing physicians, or government or public agencies engaged in related pursuits, this website is provided strictly as a public service and is not equipped to answer medical questions, nor is it intended as a public forum for debate. The Spine Research Institute of San Diego cannot and does not necessarily advocate, endorse, or validate the claims, findings, conclusions, or recommendations of the many researchers, authors, or agencies-governmental, public or private-that are cited on this website.

Patients seeking medical advice for their conditions are encouraged to consult with a specialist in their area and, as a general recommendation, to seek secondary and tertiary opinions as necessary.

The Spine Research Institute of San Diego does not offer medical advice to the public or to physicians.