Can-IIHSS | i3labgroup

Our Mission

The Can-IIHSS project aims to inform the prevention, early identification and prognosis of all injuries, concussions, and mental health concerns within Canadian university athletes.

Main Goals

Establish injury rates, risk factors for injury and consequences of injury for university athletes
Inform the development and evaluation of translatable evidence-based primary prevention strategies for injuries and concussions specifically (e.g. neuromuscular training, equipment/rule changes, training programs) to reduce the burden of injury in sport and recreational activities
Inform and evaluate early interventions to address mental health concerns
Evaluate early management and rehabilitation techniques for injuries
Improve and facilitate training and injury reporting standards related to injury for allied health professionals nationwide

Athletes

Varsity Athletes will be invited to participate in Can-IIHSS if their institution has agreed to participate.

Athlete’s participation in this research study is voluntary and they will consent through their institution’s electronic injury documentation system.

How Athletes Can Help

Sport-related injuries, concussions, and mental health conditions are a significant health challenge for university athletes. To better understand and prevent these conditions, Dr. Amanda Black and associates have created the Canadian Integrated Injury and Health Surveillance System (Can-IIHSS).

The purpose of Can-IIHSS is to create a central database to collect information on sport-related injuries, concussions, and mental health concerns of Canadian university athletes. This information can help us understand what injuries and concerns are happening and why. Gathering this type of information over time will help researchers learn how to prevent or better manage these concerns. Currently there is no such database set up for Canadian varsity sports.

The Can-IIHSS project will begin with nearly 20 university institutions across Canada. At each participating university, all varsity athletes will be asked if they would like to take part. Nationwide, there are 20,000 USPORTS athletes who may be asked to participate.

If you agree to take part, information collected by the injury care team associated with your athletic department, will be transferred into the Can-IIHSS database. Your name, address, and insurance information will be removed before the information is transferred. The following information will be transferred from your athletic institution’s electronic injury documentation system to the Can-IIHSS database:

Your age, date of birth, sex, and gender
The university you attend
Information about your sport, level, and experience of play
Information related to your general health
Measurements and tests related to sport injuries
Measurements and tests related to concussions
Questions about your mental health, and feelings of anxiety and depression
Questions about your equipment and sport environment
Time spent training and in competition, or time lost due to injury or mental health concerns
Information about the care you receive for injuries or mental health concerns

This information is collected each year as a part of your annual pre-participation evaluation, as well as throughout the year as part of your injury management care. Anytime you sustain an injury, or an injury care team member updates your playing/injury status, information will be transferred as part of the research project.

At any time during the project, athletes are welcome to contact Can-IIHSS@ucalgary.ca for more information.

Project History

The Canadian Integrated Injury and Health Surveillance System (Can-IIHSS) is a new surveillance program that began in 2018. Clinicians at universities across Canada collaborated with USPORTS and researchers to begin planning a national injury surveillance project. We received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) in Spring 2023 to fund the first official 4 years.

The development of the Can-IIHSS research program was informed by implementation science using an Integrated Knowledge Translation approach to faciliate better quality injury surveillance.

The Can-IIHSS research program aims to help evaluate effective injury and concussion prevention and early identification of mental health concerns within the Canadian varsity athletic population.

This program involves collecting baseline data on pre-participation examination forms to determine any previous injury, concussion, and mental health/sleep-specific test-related data to measure individual athlete risk factors at the beginning of the season.

Throughout the season, injury data (e.g., injury location, type, severity), exposure data (i.e., practice, competition) and post-concussion data will be recorded. There are primary, secondary, and tertiary injury and mental health prevention and management strategies that can be evaluated to further decrease injury concussion, and mental health conditions at the university level across Canada.