New Delhi, Nov 8 (IANS): With over five million deaths reported each year due to injuries, a collaboration was announced here Friday between India and Australia to develop world class trauma care system.

Both the countries are investing over $2.6 million in the Australia-India Trauma Systems Collaboration (AITSC). Australian High Commissioner Patrick Suckling inaugurated the AITSC here Friday.

Led by the National Trauma Research Institute, a partnership between the Alfred Hospital and Monash University in Melbourne, and the JPN Apex Trauma Centre at AIIMS, the programme brings together some of the world's leaders in trauma care.

"It will lay the foundations for a national trauma system in India. It will also provide needed evidence about low-cost trauma system interventions that could be implemented in most countries without the need for major health system re-design," said the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) director M.C. Mishra.

The collaboration will help India and Australia develop world class trauma care for those who need it most.

"Trauma is a growing challenge for the country and the world. Of the total volume of injury, about 40 percent is the brain injury and most of them are easily preventable by precautions and timely intervention," said Mishra.

Arabinda Mitra of the Department of Science and Technology said: "This collaboration is going to touch lives of people. It is going to be a path-breaking project and would become a flagship project."

The project will focus on varied issues like developing protocols to provide prompt relief to injured, rehabilitation, trauma quality improvement programs and preparing trauma registry among others.