The Athletic Training Practice-Based Research Network: A National Model for Point-of-Care Sports Injury and Outcomes Documentation to Improve Athlete Health and Wellness

There is mounting evidence to suggest that sport-related injuries can negatively impact an individual's well-being and quality of life on a long-term basis. As a result, there has been increased interest in the medical community to gain a better understanding of effective treatment interventions to ensure optimal short- and long-term health. Despite the growing problem of sport-related injuries and the need to identify effective treatment interventions, there is surprisingly little data to describe the types of treatments provided for common sport-related injuries at the point-of-care and how those treatments can potentially impact short- and long-term patient outcomes. In this paper, we aim to (1) introduce the Athletic Training Practice-Based Research Network (AT-PBRN) as an infrastructure for collecting the requisite data to address current gaps in sports medicine literature, (2) summarize findings from the AT-PBRN, and (3) describe future directions of the AT-PBRN.