In 1999, the Research Institute was restructured to form the Center for Safety Research and the Center for Disability Research, two separate but highly coordinated entities. While the Center for Safety Research maintains Liberty Mutual's strong focus on the causes and prevention of occupational accidents and injuries, the Center for Disability Research investigates the best ways to promote successful return-to-work outcomes when occupational injuries occur.
The Institute formed research partnerships with the Industrial Engineering Department of Tsinghua University as well as the School of Public Health of Fudan University — two of China's premier universities. Through joint research, these collaborations helped to increase the understanding of occupational and traffic injuries in China. In addition, they helped to enhance capacity for safety research in China. The Institute also co-sponsored an annual China SafeWork Forum with China's State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS).
In 2001, the Research Institute formed the Quantitative Analysis Unit (QAU) to conduct original studies in occupational injury epidemiology, develop promising design and analysis methods, and to serve as a statistical resource partner to the two Centers. In addition to other workforce injury and field studies, the QAU produces the annual Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index, a ranking of the leading causes of disabling occupational injuries and illnesses in the United States. The first report of its kind, the Index provides a valuable resource to researchers, employers, and others dedicated to workplace safety, enabling them to identify the leading injury causes and direct costs.
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Biomechanics/Motion
Analysis Laboratory
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The Research Institute broke ground for a major reconstruction and addition in 2002. The new 91,000-square-foot facility, comprised of two separate buildings, was constructed to better house occupational safety and disability research programs and staff, as well as to better accommodate visiting scientists. An 1,800-square-foot biomechanics/motion analysis laboratory, a relocated and revamped upper extremity laboratory, and a centralized, computerized telephonic data collection system were among the research
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Official ribbon cutting at the
Research Institute in 2004 |
capability enhancements. Officially dedicated in the spring of 2004, the reconstruction also included a new, state-of-the art industrial hygiene laboratory and a training facility for Liberty Mutual's senior loss prevention consultants and personal, homeowner, and automobile insurance claims adjusters.
In May of the same year, the Research Institute formed a collaborative research agreement with the Vietnam National Institute of Occupational and Environmental Health and the Vietnam Occupational Health Association. Under the agreement, Institute researchers joined forces with these organizations and the University of Massachusetts-Lowell on a surveillance study of work-related injuries in Vietnam. In 2005, researchers began to collect work and injury data from more than 10,000 residents of Xuan Tien, a Vietnamese commune located in the province of Nam Dinh. The information gathered through this and related studies will be used to develop a model for understanding the true burden of work-related injuries in Vietnam and other developing countries.
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