Creating An Injury And Illness Surveillance System For Team Usa - Part 2: Extracting Useful And Actionable Insights

PURPOSE: This study describes the processes to extract actionable insights from an electronic injury and illness surveillance (IIS) system developed for Team USA. METHODS: In parallel to developing and implementing the IIS, US Olympic & Paralympic Committee Sports Medicine clinicians and leadership were consulted on a reporting structure to support clinical practice. A robust data pipeline was constructed to generate these reporting processes efficiently, including R and Python scripts to extract, update, clean, and conduct quality assurance of the IIS records. Rmarkdown scripts generated reports containing data visualizations and executive summaries to prioritize timely reporting and enhance information digestion. Separate R scripts facilitated data wrangling for editable clinician-use reports. Stakeholders continuously provided critical feedback throughout the development of reports to ensure alignment. RESULTS: Data processing and reporting pipelines resulted in the following reports: 1) Weekly data tables for use during interdisciplinary care meetings; 2) Weekly graphical reports depicting the injury and illness burden across and within US Olympic & Paralympic Committee sports medicine clinics (Colorado Springs, CO; Lake Placid, NY; Chula Vista, CA); 3) Monthly graphical reports illustrating trends in injury and illness burden and highlighting key takeaways; 4) Post-Games graphical reports to inform organizational and departmental leadership about the epidemiology of injuries and illnesses reported in Team USA athletes; 5) Detailed injury and illness datasets for international bodies (e.g., International Olympic Committee) to support Games-wide surveillance programs. DISCUSSION: The successful implementation of an IIS extends beyond structured data collection and storage; it also requires extracting and utilizing actionable insights to enhance athlete healthcare. Data processing and reporting pipelines delivered via timely and tailored reports are critical in effectively implementing a complex IIS system. A similar data pipeline could be used for future anonymized reports for specific teams and National Governing Bodies. The lessons learned from this process could be valuable in establishing similar surveillance systems for other sports organizations. This study was funded in part by a Research Centre Grant from the International Olympic Committee