Developing and Implementing Major League Baseball's Health and Injury Tracking System

Area of Science:

• Sports Medicine
• Epidemiology
• Public Health

Background:

• A 2010 agreement between Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association initiated the development of electronic medical record and injury surveillance systems.
• Existing methods for tracking player health and injury trends were insufficient for longitudinal analysis and targeted interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To document the development and implementation of the Health and Injury Tracking System (HITS).
• To describe HITS's utility for epidemiologic research in professional baseball.
• To illustrate the system's potential for informing injury prevention policies and advancing sports injury epidemiology.

Main Methods:

• Development and implementation of a league-wide electronic medical record and injury surveillance system (HITS).
• Inclusion of all Major and Minor League players in the HITS database.
• Facilitation of data linkage with player- and game-level data.

Main Results:

• HITS provides a robust system for longitudinal tracking of player medical histories.
• The system enables identification and monitoring of injury trends across professional baseball.
• Data linkage capabilities within HITS support evidence-based policy development.

Conclusions:

• HITS represents a significant advancement in sports injury surveillance and epidemiologic research.
• The system has the potential to optimize player health and safety through data-driven insights.
• HITS can inform the development of targeted injury prevention strategies in Major League Baseball.