Interview: Bill Moreau, USOC on Evidence-based Medicine to Reduce Sports Injuries
We discuss the success of Analytics in predicting sports injuries, recent progress in concussion management and the trends in data-driven evidence-based sports medicine.
He served as Team USA’s medical director at the London 2012 Olympic Games and the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, in which he was responsible for administering medical care to more than 500 athletes as provided by more than 100 medical providers.
Dr. Moreau has more than 30 years of clinical expertise in both general practice and sports medicine. He serves on the editorial review board of the Journal of Chiropractic Medicine and has served for many years with the American Chiropractic Board of Sports Physicians.
First part of interview
Here is second part of my interview with him:
Anmol Rajpurohit Q5. So far, how successful has Data Analytics been in predicting sports injuries (and thus, avoiding those injuries through proactive actions)?
Dr. Bill Moreau: We are making steady headway using data to drive change. A great case study is our women’s wrestling program. Since developing the Elite Athlete
AR: Q6. What are the specific goals of your on-going research on concussions? Any interesting observations, so far? What kind of implications do you foresee for your study?
USOC Sports Medicine is dedicated to researching concussion to gain a better understanding of the epidemiology of concussion across the many sports we serve as well as the natural progression of concussion symptoms and best practices for recovery in the elite athlete.
The key to concussion management is to ensure that the athlete has recovered from their injury before they are returned to play. We foresee that we can use our sports medicine analytics to serve as a base of evidence to evaluate existing recovery strategies as well as investigate and provide new safe interventions to help athletes to safely return to sport from a concussion injury. This return to play decision is a key and monumental task because of the individual variability in concussion presentation and recovery. We do not use time to dictate the recovery from concussion, rather each individual with concussion must be assessed and managed based upon their specific presentation with considerations to many modifiers and variables.
USOC Sports Medicine collaborates with International leaders in providing concussion research to best protect athletes and better understand best practices in concussion management and return to play decision processes.
AR: Q7. What trends will dominate the advancement of data-driven evidence-based sports medicine in the next 2-3 years?
The future of identifying injury and disease processes before they are experienced is the next frontier that is at our front door. Researchers around the world are pressing the envelope to better understand how we can use data to not only drive best practices in care management, but more importantly preserve the health of individuals by preventing injury and illness.
The ultimate multivariable subject is humankind. Each of us has our own assets that both mitigate and drive risk of injury and illness. Over a course of time there will be identified commonalities for many injuries and illnesses whereby the variable that can be changed will be changed to lead to predictive preventive outcomes. My perspective is this is the single most important area that drives my thoughts around the application of data; to preserve an individuals’ health.
Taking technology to the field allows individuals, researchers and clinicians to record, measure and provide real time biofeedback with previously unavailable measurement technologies such as force pates, pressure sensors and 3-dimensional motion analysis and a vast array of other measurements.
Third part of the interview
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