Pac-12 Health Analytics Program (HAP): An Innovative Approach to Health Care Operations, Data Analytics and Clinical Research in Intercollegiate Athletics

Abstract

Objective To describe the purpose, methods, and impact of the Pac-12 Health Analytics Program (HAP) approach on sports medicine informatics, research, analytics, and health care operations. Background Sports injury surveillance initiatives have been supporting the clinical research community in sports medicine for nearly four decades. Whereas initial systems tracked only a few sports, current surveillance programs have expanded to include entire professional and elite athlete organizations, providing important statistics on sports injury risk management. Description The HAP is a conference-wide data sharing and analytics program. It includes authorized, de-identified clinical data, encompassing multiple domains of sports medicine injury management, including sports injury/illness, concussion, risk exposure, and COVID-19 testing elements. The HAP provides clinicians access to curated data to inform evidence-based practice and support local health care operations of emerging sports injury trends. The HAP provides approved research groups access to a data repository that describes a homogeneous, elite intercollegiate athlete sample that supports non-research clinical initiatives as well as contributes to peer-reviewed research that can improve the health and well-being of Pac-12 student-athletes. Conclusions The HAP is a different approach to sports injury epidemiology and surveillance. The HAP has allowed the Pac-12 Conference to meet larger objectives around improving the student-athlete experience and clinical research among its member schools. Data quality control has improved the accuracy of data and value to clinical athletic trainers within the conference. Curated dashboards displaying aggregated project data provide clinicians with data-driven decision-making tools that help inform sports injury risk management. As of 2021, the HAP has supported over three dozen research requests that have resulted in numerous peer-reviewed research contributions to the sports medicine community whose findings have great potential to improve the health and well-being of Pac-12 student athletes.