Certified Athletic Trainers Needed for Comprehensive Cheer Injury Study
The AACCA just received this communication from Dr. Dawn Comstock with the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio regarding the 2009-2010 National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study. We are pleased to report that for the first time, this study will include cheerleading programs! This will give us the most comprehensive cheerleading injury data available to date and will be a great addition to the existing injury reports and studies annually published.
The intent of the study, to “move toward the goal of reducing the rates and severity of sports-related injuries among high school athletes” is one shared by AACCA, Cheerleading Coaches, Parents and Administrators everywhere, and we commend the NFHS and the Center for Injury Research and Policy for including cheer in the study.
If you are a Certified Athletic Trainer for a high school program, please consider joining as a reporter. If you know a high school A.T.C., please pass this information on to them as soon as possible. As Dr. Comstock says, “The more schools who volunteer to participate in the study, the more representative a sample we can enroll and the better the data we will collect.”
Dear Certified Athletic Trainer,
I am contacting you today to invite you to participate in the 2009-2010 National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study, the fifth year of the study being conducted by faculty from The Ohio State University’s College of Medicine and Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s Center for Injury Research and Policy.
High School ATCs are well aware that as the number of high school sports participants increases over time, so do the number of injuries sustained by high school athletes. By participating in this project, you can help us move toward the goal of reducing the rates and severity of sports-related injuries among high school athletes.
This research project uses RIO™ (Reporting Information Online), an internet-based surveillance system closely modeled after the NCAA ISS, to collect data from a national sample of high school athletes to identify rates and patterns of injury and to identify risk and protective factors for sports injuries at the high school level. This year we have made an exciting change to the RIO™ system! The RIO™ system now includes an electronic medical record (EMR) component developed specifically for you to use in your clinical setting. While the new, updated RIO™ software remains easy to use, you will now be able to use the EMR component to manage and track information about your athletes, the injury assessments you conduct, the treatments you provide, and medical outcomes of these treatments. As a participant in the 2009-2010 National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study, you will get full access to this EMR as a token of our appreciation. Of course, you will also receive a monetary incentive to thank you for your participation as well.
The ATCs who participated last year did a great job! During the 2009-2010 National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study, they collectively reported information on 7,409 injuries sustained during participation in 3,928,477 high school athletic exposures in 18 sports (boys’ football, boys’ and girls’ soccer, girls’ volleyball, boys’ and girls’ basketball, boys’ wrestling, boys’ baseball, girls’ softball, girls’ field hockey, girls’ gymnastics, boys’ ice hockey, boys’ and girls’ lacrosse, boys’ and girls’ swimming and diving, and boys’ and girls’ track and field). Using this wealth of data, we are currently working on calculating injury rates, describing patterns of injury, and identifying risk factors. If you would like a free copy of the complete 2008-2009 High School RIO™ summary report, please let us know.
In addition to adding the EMR, we have made several other important changes to improve the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study based on the helpful suggestions of past participants and requests from the NFHS. The most notable change is that we have added 2 new sports to the study including boys’ volleyball and cheerleading. You are not expected to report for all 20 sports. Instead, you will report for 10 randomly selected sports that are offered at your school and that you provide services for.
Study participants may also have the opportunity to participate in additional substudies. For example, this fall, a study of eye injuries in field hockey is being conducted by Children’s Hospital Boston, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and the Fairfax County (VA) Public Schools Athletic Training Program. Using a grant from Prevent Blindness America, a national, non-profit eye health and safety organization, the purpose of this study is to determine whether or not mandated protective eyewear effectively reduces the incidence of severe eye injuries in high school female field hockey players. Participation in such substudies is always voluntary and will not affect your participation in the larger National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study.
If you and your school would like to participate in the 2009-2010 National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study and/or the substudy regarding eye injuries in field hockey or if you simply want additional information about this important project, please click on the following link: http://selectsurvey.nchri.org/TakeSurvey.aspx?SurveyID=l60I672.
We are currently working on finding a way to make our new RIO™ Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system available to schools not selected to participate in the 2009-2010 National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study or schools not interesting in participating. If, for some reason, you are unable to participate in this important study but would like to learn more about this possibility, please click on the following link: http://selectsurvey.nchri.org/TakeSurvey.aspx?SurveyID=l60I672.
If you prefer not to be contacted again regarding this project, please click on the following link: http://selectsurvey.nchri.org/TakeSurvey.aspx?SurveyID=l60I672. Because we cannot discern a failed e-mail connection from a lack of interest in the research project, you may receive a follow-up e-mail if you do not let us know via this link that you are not interested.
Thank you for your time. We look forward to working with you! Also, please feel free to forward this invitation to any other ATCs who may be interested in participating.
Sincerely,
R. Dawn Comstock, PhD
Principal Investigator and Assistant Professor
The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Center for Injury Research and Policy
The Ohio State University, College of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics
and College of Public Health, Division of Epidemiology
Center for Injury Research and Policy
700 Children’s Drive
Columbus, Ohio, 43205
(614) 722-2400 phone
(614) 722-2448 fax
highschoolrio@nationwidechildrens.org
Posted: July 28th, 2009 under safety studies.