Get SMARTS! (Sports Medicine Research Team System): A Computerized Outpatient Data Collection System for Epidemiologic Research
Abstract
A computerized outpatient data collection system was designed to support musculoskeletal injury epidemiological research. This report describes features of the Sports Medicine Research Team System (SMARTS) and reviews results of a SMARTS supported prospective study of male Marine Corps recruits undergoing basic training. The user friendly, menu driven SMARTS software program was developed to track outpatient encounter data in military populations. SMARTS has been installed in medical clinics on 6 military bases and contains 110,793 records on 53,638 patients as of November 1995. Of 1241 male Marine Corps recruits from January to August 1993, 15% attrited, 85% graduated, and 40% of graduates were diagnosed with a musculoskeletal injury. Lower extremity injuries were most common (73%), followed by back and neck (9%) and upper extremity (5%) injuries. Peaks of injury presentation occurred the second to third week and tenth week of training. SMARTS has applicability in clinical and research settings. Successfully exported into outpatient clinics, SMARTS supports prospective epidemiological research. Software systems such as SMARTS can increase data collection efficiency for determination of morbidity rates, risk correlates, and fiscal and functional impacts of injuries and diseases.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 1997
- Accession Number
- ADA331435
Entities
People
- A. Lê
- C. Garland
- C. Weech Johnson
- R. A. Shaffer
- S. K. Brodine
Organizations
- Naval Health Research Center