3 ways proper injury reporting benefits athletes
Last Tuesday night (12/3/2013), some of our Sports Med staff participated in a Twitter chat about athletic injury reporting.
If you haven’t ever seen a Twitter chat before, it’s quite the rodeo. People’s fingers fly as they frantically type responses to questions posed by the moderator, and with equal dexterity and speed, participants also RT, MT, and favorite in a mad flurry of Tweets that jumble and tumble around the Twitterverse. But that makes it sound chaotic (which it is), but it’s controlled chaos that used the #SportsSafety hashtag.
Briefly then, I took away three points from the conversation that seem relevant and beneficial to our audience.
1. We should care more about how injuries are reported and tracked.
Sure, it’s easy to look out on the field or court and say, “Oh! Johnny just went down,” but couldn’t that knowledge be put to better use if it was tracked and stored?
Let's get going! Q1: How are injuries reported in sports organizations/leagues in your community? #SportsSafety
— STOP Sports Injuries (@SportsSafety) December 4, 2013
A1: Some organizations have safety officers on the board who receive injury reports and are supposed to follow the case. #SportsSafety
— Carrie Boan (@carrie_boan) December 4, 2013
https://twitter.com/tjatcASHS/statuses/408054751310266368
Athletic trainers that oversee the leagues will keep basic records. Most don't have a good system #SportsSafety
— Dr. Geoff Van Thiel (@VanThielMD) December 4, 2013
So it would seem, according to the above Tweets, that not everyone has the same approach to injury reporting. Systems often increase efficiency, and with the advent of smart technology, it’s a wonder that more tools are not available for injury tracking.
2. Athletic trainers (and those who handle athletic injuries) lack the time to properly report.
Many of the people who participated in the chat said they felt inundated with injuries throughout the day, and they did not have the proper time to report injuries.
Agree with RT @TheA4SHR: The biggest challenge is not enough time for reporting. ATs are overworked. Also, no oversight #SportsSafety
— Dr. Geoff Van Thiel (@VanThielMD) December 4, 2013
It's always time 🙁 RT @EHHSsportsmed Time!!!! If not full time, difficult I'm between evals,treatment, etc. #SportsSafety
— OrthoIllinois (@OrthoIllinois) December 4, 2013
https://twitter.com/tjatcASHS/statuses/408059073116913664
Think about this: if those responsible for reporting lack the time to do it thoroughly, could that turn into athletes competing who should be benched due to injury? It’s worth thinking about, and I certainly hope that’s a rare occurrence.
3. #BigData is not always bad, despite the politically charged rhetoric in the news
Think about what could be done if you could compare your teams to similar teams. Teams and schools could create benchmark assessments for common injuries. Coaches could find out what injuries plague their teams and when in the season they tend to happen. Practices could adjust to include proper prevention training as well as skill development, and maybe some of you are saying “And unicorns will deliver a delicious beverage to my window every morning.”
#bigdata is opening doors for what #athleticinjuryreporting can do. e.g. develop effective policy & measuring impact of #ATCs. #SportsSafety
— Agency4StudentHealth (@TheA4SHR) December 4, 2013
Wouldn’t it be nice to know how effective an athletic trainer is? I think so.
A3:Injury trends in age groups, genders, etc. Possibly determine what injury prevention techniques are effective/ineffective #SportsSafety
— Carrie Boan (@carrie_boan) December 4, 2013
What if your team could know that the JV girls volleyball seemed to have similar injuries over the past ten years. Well, it’s time to make some changes, right? Data allows athletes and coaches to train smarter throughout the whole year.
@SportsSafety this could affect practice and training if prevalent injuries were identified. #SportsSafety
— OrthoIllinois (@OrthoIllinois) December 4, 2013
Exactly.
When we think about athletic competition, one of the main concerns should be safety and injury prevention. Athletes can’t compete if they’re injured, which hurts everybody: the team, the coach, the spectators, and (at the professional level) the sponsors.
So better injury tracking that has a direct impact on training seems like a good idea. Got any thoughts or stories to share? Share in the comments (and share with your friends!).
