Until 1977 the teaching of traffic medicine related subjects in Virginia medical schools had been carried out by some individual physicians according to their specific interests, usually by pediatricians, surgeons involved in E.M.S., or by orthopedists, neurosurgeons, and other surgeons. Causative factors were usually approached only in the discussion of alcoholism. In 1977 the Committee on Highway Safety of the Medical Society of Virginia made a survey to determine the status of the teaching of Traffic Medicine at each of the three Virginia medical schools and, with the support of the Virginia Highway Safety Commission, has undertaken the development of programs that would introduce traffic medicine teaching beginning with basic science consideration at the undergraduate level.

The basic areas to be covered were as follows:​

1. Precrash anatomical and physiological factors in relation to trauma causation.
2. Postcrash damage to anatomical structures or physiological alterations.
3. Pathological alterations of tissues by altered state of health, intoxication, prescribed medication and effects thereof in highway safety.
4. Environmental factors---the roadway.
5. Environmental factors---the vehicle.
6. Perceptive factors (lighting and behavioral variation in recognition and retention capabilities, coordination and reaction time in childhood, adult, and the elderly).
7. Injury evaluation---the Abbreviated Injury Scale. Data retrieval as a resource in trauma research.
8. Multifactoral planning as a basic countermeasure---systems planning according to human, mechanical, design, and spatial limitations.
9. The physician's role in prevention of highway deaths and injuries in relation to:​
1. His patient's illnesses.
2. As an advisor.
3. His responsibility to influence safety legislation.
4. Emergency medical service.
10. The physician as an educator, as, for instance, traffic villages, youth programs in schools, the elderly and traffic.