Injury Management: Using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to improve data quality and knowledge transfer in an Elite Sporting Club

The aim of this study is to describe the processes of capturing injury data of elite athletes using information and communication technologies (ICT) and the subsequent knowledge transfer of that data for analysis by medical and healthcare professionals. Previous inhibitors to effective knowledge transfer include poor data capture quality. This resulted from lack of resources to capture the data; incomplete and inaccurate data; and lack of codification or structure of the data. Data capture quality is a key concern in the management of elite athletes’ injuries. There is increasing risk of litigation surrounding the treatment and rehabilitation of athletes and their return to competition. This risk may be attributed to poor data quality; hence, there are significant business pressures for elite sporting clubs to ensure injury records are complete and consistent. Through an interpretive study, using empirical injury management data of an elite sporting club, this paper demonstrates how innovative software with a speech-enabled human computer interface enables improvements of knowledge transfer through improved data capture quality. Key findings indicate that improved data capture using the software does not involve increased workload when it is integrated with the business processes of injury management in the elite sporting club. By using this innovative human computer interface the elite sporting club has improved knowledge transfer for analytics and data mining with a view to establishing injury prevention in the future.