Federico E Vaca, MD, MPH
Professor AdjunctDownloadHi-Res Photo
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Appointments
Emergency Medicine
Primary
Child Study Center
Secondary
Contact Info
About
Titles
Professor Adjunct
Biography
Dr. Vaca is Professor Adjunct in the Yale School of Medicine's Department of Emergency Medicine.
He is a board-certified emergency medicine physician and physician-scientist. He previously served as a Medical Fellow for the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in Washington, D.C. Over the last 20 years, his research has focused on occupant safety, adolescent development and behaviors that influence the risk of motor vehicle crash injury as well as health disparities in injury and alcohol use disorders. His research has been funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), NIH’s Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR), and the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). Dr. Vaca has chaired and served on several NIH scientific review committees, chaired national expert panels directed by the National Academies of Sciences, Medicine, and Engineering’s Transportation Research Board, and previously served on the Board of Scientific Counselors for the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
Appointments
Emergency Medicine
Professor AdjunctPrimaryChild Study Center
Professor AdjunctSecondary
Other Departments & Organizations
- Child Study Center
- Emergency Medicine
- Global Health Studies
- Middle East and North Africa Program for Advanced Injury Research (MENA PAIR)
- Yale Ventures
- Yale-Drug use, Addiction, and HIV prevention Research Scholars (DAHRS)
Education & Training
- MPH
- University of California at Los Angeles (2002)
- Medical Fellow
- U.S. Department of Transportation and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) (2002)
- Fellow
- University of California-San Diego (1996)
- Resident
- University of California-Irvine Medical Center (1995)
- Chief Resident
- University of California, Irvine (1995)
- MD
- Creighton University School of Medicine (1992)
Board Certifications
Sports Medicine (Emergency Medicine)
- Certification Organization
- AB of Emergency Medicine
- Latest Certification Date
- 2016
- Original Certification Date
- 2006
Emergency Medicine
- Certification Organization
- AB of Emergency Medicine
- Latest Certification Date
- 2017
- Original Certification Date
- 2006
Research
Overview
Medical Research Interests
Accident Prevention; Adolescent; Adolescent Development; Behavioral Medicine; Behavioral Research; Emergency Medicine; Healthcare Disparities; Motor Vehicles; Social Behavior
- View Lab Website
Yale Developmental Neurocognitive Driving Simulation Research Center (DrivSim Lab)
Research at a Glance
Yale Co-Authors
Frequent collaborators of Federico E Vaca's published research.
Publications Timeline
A big-picture view of Federico E Vaca's research output by year.
Research Interests
Research topics Federico E Vaca is interested in exploring.
Barbara Banz, PhD
James Dziura, MPH, PhD
Antonio Riera, MD
Leslie Curry, PhD, MPH
Deepa Camenga, MD, MHS, FAAP
Michael Crowley, PhD
95Publications
887Citations
Adolescent
Emergency Medicine
Motor Vehicles
Publications
2024
How the cognitive load of simulated driving affects the brain dynamics underlying auditory attention
Banz B, Wu J, Camenga D, Mayes L, Crowley M, Vaca F. How the cognitive load of simulated driving affects the brain dynamics underlying auditory attention. Traffic Injury Prevention 2024, 25: s167-s174. PMID: 39485699, DOI: 10.1080/15389588.2024.2373950.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsBrain responses to auditory stimuliResponses to auditory stimuliAuditory attentional processingCortical regionsTarget tonesNo-load conditionTemporal cortical regionsRight frontal cortical regionsTarget earFrontal cortical regionsMotor vehicle crashesAlpha responsesBrain levelsPosterior cortical regionsTheta oscillationsEvent-related brain responsesTheta powerBrain-based measuresAuditory stimuliAuditory attentionEarly time windowStudy designVehicle crashesCognitive loadWorking memoryIndividual and social-environmental factors among young drivers informing decisions to ride with an impaired driver and drive impaired: A sequential mixed methods assessment
Vaca F, Camenga D, Li K, Zuniga V, Banz B, Iannotti R, Grayton C, Simons-Morton B, Haynie D, Curry L. Individual and social-environmental factors among young drivers informing decisions to ride with an impaired driver and drive impaired: A sequential mixed methods assessment. Traffic Injury Prevention 2024, 25: s15-s24. PMID: 39485697, PMCID: PMC11563878, DOI: 10.1080/15389588.2024.2368595.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsInterview transcriptsHealth-related quality of lifeLongitudinal nationally representative studyMixed methods assessmentHealth-related qualityQualitative interview guideSequential explanatory mixed methods approachNEXT Generation Health StudyExplanatory mixed methods approachNationally representative studySocial environmental factorsStage 1 findingsAssessment of impairmentQuality of lifeMixed methods approachHealth StudyInterview guideData immersionJoint displaysMeasures of resilienceQualitative interviewsLatent class analysisRepresentative studyQualitative dataImpaired driversModeling of drinking and driving behaviors among adolescents and young adults in the United States: Complexities and Intervention outcomes
Hosseinichimeh N, MacDonald R, Li K, Fell J, Haynie D, Simons-Morton B, Banz B, Camenga D, Iannotti R, Curry L, Dziura J, Andersen D, Vaca F. Modeling of drinking and driving behaviors among adolescents and young adults in the United States: Complexities and Intervention outcomes. Social Science & Medicine 2024, 354: 117087. PMID: 39043064, PMCID: PMC11334945, DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117087.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchAltmetricConceptsAlcohol-impaired drivingAlcohol-related crash fatalitiesLikelihood of unintended consequencesUnited StatesAlcohol-related crashesPolicy-makersUnintended consequencesGroup model building sessionsInterconnected factorsModel building sessionsCrash fatalitiesYoung adultsModels of drinkingHistorical trendsPublic health problemStakeholder actionsCombined interventionSustained declineIntervention outcomesHealth problemsActivistsCrash deathsInterventionSubject matter experts
2022
Binge drinking and alcohol-related symptoms may underlie patterns of dynamic brain oscillations of resource allocation during high-fidelity driving simulation
Banz B, Camenga D, Crowley M, Vaca F. Binge drinking and alcohol-related symptoms may underlie patterns of dynamic brain oscillations of resource allocation during high-fidelity driving simulation. Traffic Injury Prevention 2022, 23: s232-s233. DOI: 10.1080/15389588.2022.2119027.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchA study of self-reported personal cannabis use and state legal status and associations with engagement in and perceptions of cannabis-impaired driving
Brown T, Banz B, Schmitt R, Gaffney G, Milavetz G, Camenga D, Li K, Brooks-Russell A, Vaca F. A study of self-reported personal cannabis use and state legal status and associations with engagement in and perceptions of cannabis-impaired driving. Traffic Injury Prevention 2022, 23: s183-s186. PMID: 37014194, PMCID: PMC10618935, DOI: 10.1080/15389588.2022.2124803.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsUnited States Emergency Department Screening for Drug Use Among Assault-Injured Individuals: A Systematic Review
Coupet E, Dodington J, Brackett A, Vaca FE. United States Emergency Department Screening for Drug Use Among Assault-Injured Individuals: A Systematic Review. Western Journal Of Emergency Medicine 2022, 23: 443-450. PMID: 35980419, PMCID: PMC9391011, DOI: 10.5811/westjem.2022.5.55475.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsAltmetricMeSH Keywords and ConceptsConceptsDrug useSystematic reviewNon-duplicated studiesModifiable risk factorsEmergency Department ScreeningEmergency department settingBusy emergency department settingMeta-analysis protocolMedical Subject Headings termsPreferred Reporting ItemsSubject Headings termsFull-text articlesOvid AMEDTreatment initiationCochrane CENTRALOvid EmbaseDirect referralRisk factorsDepartment settingPharmacological interventionsCommon drugsReporting ItemsTreatment servicesClinical modelScreen questionsWhat determines the success of states in reducing alcohol related crash fatalities? A longitudinal analysis of alcohol related crashes in the U.S. from 1985 to 2019
Hosseinichimeh N, Williams R, MacDonald R, Li K, Vaca FE. What determines the success of states in reducing alcohol related crash fatalities? A longitudinal analysis of alcohol related crashes in the U.S. from 1985 to 2019. Accident Analysis & Prevention 2022, 174: 106730. PMID: 35709595, PMCID: PMC10756063, DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2022.106730.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsToward a Performance-Based Driver Licensing System for Teenagers in the U.S.
Ehsani JP, Kinnear N, Helman S, Vaca FE, Michael JP. Toward a Performance-Based Driver Licensing System for Teenagers in the U.S. American Journal Of Preventive Medicine 2022, 63: 450-453. PMID: 35501214, DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2022.03.009.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsAltmetricDo the Youngest Drivers Crash the Most?
Vaca FE, Li K. Do the Youngest Drivers Crash the Most? JAMA Network Open 2022, 5: e228785. PMID: 35467738, DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.8785.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchAltmetricMeSH KeywordsIs Delayed Driving Licensure Associated With Emerging Adult Health, Education, and Employment?
Gao X, Vaca FE, Haynie DL, Simons-Morton BG, Li K. Is Delayed Driving Licensure Associated With Emerging Adult Health, Education, and Employment? Journal Of Adolescent Health 2022, 70: 751-756. PMID: 35260285, PMCID: PMC9038702, DOI: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2022.01.128.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsAltmetricMeSH Keywords and ConceptsConceptsHours/weekSelf-reported healthBetter self-reported healthNEXT Generation Health StudyRace/ethnicityMultinomial logistic regressionHealth StudyCohort surveyLogistic regressionPoor healthAdult HealthMore teensOutcome variablesEarly adulthoodDevelopmental milestonesImportant healthFamily affluenceHigher likelihoodHealthDriver licensureAnnual assessmentsFour yearsWeeksParental educationLicensure
Academic Achievements & Community Involvement
activity Appointments and Promotions Committee - Yale University School of Medicine
CommitteesCommittee MemberDetailsactivity Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine
Professional OrganizationsBoard MemberDetailsactivity Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine
Professional OrganizationsCommittee MemberDetailsactivity Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Committee on Operator Education and Regulation, ANB30
CommitteesMemberDetails04/01/2013 - Presentactivity Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Committee on Simulation and Measurement of Vehicle and Operator Performance, AND30
CommitteesMemberDetails04/15/2016 - Present
News & Links
News
- February 24, 2022
Yale Emergency Medicine Ranks First for NIH Grants Funding According to National Report
- February 06, 2022
Decision support tool to assist with trauma triage for pediatric patients involved motor vehicle collisions
- February 06, 2022
Analysis of alcohol-related deaths among young passengers riding with an impaired driver
- February 06, 2022
Yale DrivSim faculty use systems science to develop a causal loop model focused on systems in society that influences driving after drinking behaviors among adolescents and young adults
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