How many days as your team lost to injuries this season? How many of those injuries where new injuries? How you injury rates compare with this time last year and added you injury incidents compare with that in the published literature? How does your incidence of injury, vary throughout the season?
If you do not know the answer to these questions, then chances are you’re not auditing your medical practice. The question then becomes, if you do not know where the problems are how do you allocate resources to tackle them? Are you simply reacting to your players or are you proactive with your injury prevention strategies?
We hear many reasons from clubs for not maintain a high quality injury audit. Time constraints, constant pressure of endless fixtures the thought of monotonous data entry all have a part to play. It was these exact reasons that lead Dr James Brown and I to develop a brand-new football electronic medical record (EMR). Not to re-brand a system designed for rugby or cricket, but to create a new bespoke football EMR with audit and injury analysis at it very centre – Benchmark54.
Benchmark54 goes way beyond the scope of conventional EMR’s. As well as recording injuries and illness Benchmark54 tracks player and team exposure, training load, availability, incidence of injury to automatically produce real-time audit data. In fact Benchmark54 collects up to 195 separate data point for each individual injury, giving you a greater level of detail than any other EMR.
Of course, every EMR will tell you how effective they are at reducing injuries, but how many of them have actually been validated?
Few of you involved in professional football will be unfamiliar with the excellent work of the Football Research Group (FRG) and a continuing audit in both the English Premier League and the UEFA Champions League. The August 2013 edition of the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM) was almost entirely devoted the work of the FRG with no fewer than 9 articles link . Over the last year, we have been collaborating with the Football Research Group to validate the quality of the information collected by Benchmark 54.
We are now able to offer football clubs from all leagues, and in any country, an electronic medical record system capable of producing publication- quality audit data. If you are already involved in the Champion League or English Premier League audit we can submit your data directly to Prof Jan Ekstrand and his Group through Benchmark54
Benchmark54 has been carefully designed to accurately collect data fast. It only takes a few minutes each day to update your data. At Benchmark54 we know data quality is important, that’s why we have a team of data analysts checking daily for irregularities.
Benchmark54 is quick to use, accurate, cross-platform compatible, the only EMR to be validated by the Football Research Group and policed daily for inaccuracies. It is also the only EMR capable of comparing your data with UEFA Champions League audit.
If you would like to know more about how we can help you understand the injury profile or your club please use the contact us form to arrange a visit.