“Open for Business!” A Primer on the Scholarly Use of the National Burn Repository

With this current issue of the Journal of Burn Care and Research, the first of six bimonthly “factoids” abstracted from the National Burn Repository (NBR) is being rolled out. They are titled “NBR Glimmers” in the spirit that they are not meant to be rigorous examinations of their deliberately provocative topics. Rather, their true purpose is to stimulate the readership to delve into follow-on, expanded, and scholarly research based on the NBR. The arrival of this series of NBR Glimmers also heralds the fact that our nationwide database in excess of 186,000 separate admissions is truly “open for business.” The current editorial is meant to be a primer to the uninitiated in the use of this collective resource. A decade ago, one of us (JCJ) thought to query the NBR and found the process as intimidating as confronting a giant, seamless monolith. It is crucial for the Advisory Committee to the NBR to ensure that thoughtful querying of our database is as accessible and user-friendly as possible.