Health and Human Performance Will Not Improve Without Transdisciplinary Collaboration and Data Sharing

Abstract

NOTE: Editorials at Journal of Athletic Training do not have Abstracts there for this Abstract is only for the Preprint.

There are two largely competing models for an athletics organization at both the collegiate and professional levels: the High Performance Model and the Medical Model. The High Performance Model largely arises from international Football perspective that places a “Performance Director” at the center of teams supporting the athletes. Medical Model, supported by both the National Athletic Trainers Association and the NCAA, separates off medical staff (athletic trainers and physicians, predominantly) and emphasizes the autonomy of medical decisions. The Medical Model has left athletic trainers in a “medical silo”, which limits our ability to care for the individual athletes and limits our wider impact in the field of athlete health and injury mitigation. We argue that Medical Model is consistent with the High Performance Model only if we reject the notion that the “Performance Director” is an administrative person and instead conceptualize this as a “Health and Performance Information Hub” which facilitates transdisciplinary collaboration. This Editorial details how a data broker system can be used to facilitate transdisciplinary collaboration within an athletic organization, leading to better healthcare for athletes and improved team and individual performance.