Sports Injury Surveillance
Definition
In essence it describes the method by which information relating to athletic injury / illness is collected, analysed and then interpreted.
Who benefits?
Whether you are the Coach of a team, an athlete, a Sports Medicine Professional, a sporting equipment manufacturer or a Sporting Governing body, a well designed effective Sports injury Surveillance program is of great value and importance and here's why
Purpose of SIS
A general SIS system can
- Provide information about the nature and amount of injury within a sport
- Identify those sub populations competing who are at greater risk of injury e.g. different playing positions may have differing risks for certain injuries
- Produce information to allow for the planning of resources needed to manage and treat Sports injuries
- Evaluate risk factors for injury
- Show the differences in injury incidence and injury severity for a variety of different sub sets of the athletic population
- Allow a Governing body to demonstrate their commitment to participant safety by monitoring and analysing the injuries encountered
- Be used as a starting point for a more system tailored to a specific situation. For example looking at the effect, playing surface has on injury incidence for the same athlete exposure.
- A specific SIS system can
- Look at the impact of athletic equipment on injury incidence / prevalence and or severity.
E.g. the impact of different shoe wear on running injury
The impact of ankle braces on ankle injury etc
- Examine the effect of different playing manoeuvres on injury incidence e.g. spear tackling now banned in American Football following an injury surveillance program
- Provide information to implement injury prevention strategies aimed to improve participant safety but not reduce sporting enjoyment
- Give a closer understanding of the aetiological factors responsible for changes in incidence and prevalence of injury providing controls are in place
- Allow guidelines of good practice to be generated improving athletic injury management
- Evaluate economic results of athletic injury
- Direct costs = (cost of x-ray specialist time operations etc)
- Indirect Costs = Expenditure incurred due to loss of productivity (5 fewer goals scored during season) or athlete now at potentially greater risk of re injury (less time spent competing)
- Be tailored to any particular user requirements providing adequate controls can be put in place
Standardisation
A problem with the SIS systems in use currently is their lack of standardisation and thus comparison of data becomes very difficult. There are very good and very mediocre systems in operation across the globe. The vast majority of SIS systems operate using paper forms, which are periodically filled in and then dispatched to a central area for data entry and then analysis and interpretation.
To move forward a standard must first be set, this standard should then harness the technology available to us. The end product would be an electronic Sports Injury Surveillance system, which would meet the needs of the vast majority of Sports across the world.
The team behind Sports Injury manager (Medesol) believe that their ongoing involvement in Sports Medicine and their commitment to improving research into this field will propel Sports Injury Manager products to the forefront of the field.
Simple
Intelligent
Manageable
