Reversing 'Brain Drain'
Datalys Works Toward Safe Sports For All
How can collarbone breaks be prevented when cyclists crash? Why are ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) injuries more prevalent in female basketball players than male? Could a structured warm-up routine help prevent certain sports injuries? These are all questions researchers may address when looking for ways to improve the prevention and treatment of sports and exercise injuries, and scientists now have a new tool to help them find the answers. The Datalys Center, a newly formed national non-profit research center in Indianapolis, is a valuable resource for the sports medicine community to conduct research that could produce health benefits for athletes of all ages and skill levels.
Formed by combining the words "data" and "analysis," the name of the center reflects its purpose. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), BioCrossroads and the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) created the center in 2008 to provide research and sports injury surveillance expertise for organizations that strive to prevent and treat sports injuries more effectively.
"Datalys is all about sports epidemiology, which means the collection of information and data about sports injuries," says Jim Whitehead, executive vice president and chief executive officer of the ACSM in Indianapolis. "That data can then be analyzed in the scientific community, conclusions be developed about it, and recommendations be made for sports. That is very spot-on with what the life sciences are all about and what the life sciences initiative in Indiana is about as well." Listen
For many years, the NCAA has been providing such a service through its Injury Surveillance Program. However, the NCAA and Hoosier life sciences leaders saw great benefit in expanding the ISS beyond collegiate sports to include the entire spectrum of athletes— from young to old, amateur to professional, and cyclists to synchronized swimmers. Listen
"Datalys will allow us to track—instead of just guess—in these new populations the injuries, severities and context in which they're occurring," says Whitehead. "It will bring this whole new dimension of sports safety and injury prevention to lots of other sports outside of what the NCAA has been tracking. It allows this great work to be expanded to all populations and all sports. With youth sports alone, you're talking about millions of kids—plus, professionals, masters and older athletes."
As the center's first collaborative partner, the NCAA will hand over day to day management of its Injury Surveillance Program beginning in the 2009-2010 academic year. As part of the transition process, the center is identifying ways to improve the program.
"Our mission and focus is to provide expertise and resources that facilitate the activity of conducting sports injury research and sports injury surveillance, largely for third parties, like the NCAA," says Datalys President Troy Hege. "We can help researchers conduct studies conceivably more quickly and cost effectively than researchers can do on their own if they had to build their program and implement it from scratch." Listen
Datalys is currently working on a more efficient way to collect data for the NCAA's surveillance program, which comes from athletic trainers. In the training room, they use specialized software to record medical information, which could be compared to electronic medical charts for the athletes. Rather than compete with the handful of companies that provide the software, Datalys developed a data transmission standard called "Export Engine." The Export Engine data standard allows athletic trainers to securely transfer injury surveillance data directly from their existing software. Datalys has already certified one commercial program as compliant with Export Engine, and hopes to certify more. Listen
"From an athletic trainer's perspective, being Export Engine certified is a pretty important benefit," says Hege. "If the athletic trainer already has a commercial software system installed, instead of having to record all the information—which is basically a medical record in the training room—and then re-provide it to us via fax or online survey tool, the data's already there in the medical record. They can basically export it to us."
While the Datalys Center has been actively doing work for just one year, Hege says the ultimate goal is to become the leading sports injury research, data collection and translation center in the world. As a result, the center will provide valuable information for the development of programs, policies, rules and education to prevent and treat sports injuries more effectively.
"This will benefit any organization or institution that's interested in this information. We come together with a common bond of wanting to promote healthy, safe and enjoyable sports, hopefully across the lifespan. We don't want injuries to be a barrier," says Whitehead. "If there are things that can be identified to reduce the risk of injury, we're all interested in that. We always want sports to be a great experience for everyone, so we're all very excited about this." Listen
