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National Sports Governing Bodies ( NGBs ) such as the RFU , England Hockey or England Athletics are some of our key stakeholders , so we work with them to conduct research at our Podium Institute for Youth Sports Medicine and Technology at the University of Oxford . This involves understanding the research that has already been conducted into sports injury , often by the NGB themselves , and then crafting with them the next piece of academic study for us to explore that will make a difference to safety in their particular sport .

Also , it has traditionally been difficult for NGBs to have visibility of participation in their sports within the school environment . We can help provide insight into school sport activity and the injuries sustained in PE and extracurricular school sports .

We work with the technology provider OutSystems to develop our Digital Injury Insights Platform which provides apps for teachers and coaches to record injuries as they occur , collect data about the nature of the injuries and also track each player ’ s recovery and return to play .

Can you tell us more about Podium , its mission and its aims ?

Podium is a charity and the brainchild of Ron Dennis , the former team principal at McLaren Formula One . He has a long history of making Formula One safer and he wanted to bring that discipline of data and science to address the issue of injuries within the youth sport .

The story goes that , as a governor of a school , Ron became aware of the number of sports-related injuries at a youth sports level and the lack of information about them .

This piqued his interest and he started to research the issue and consult with experts he had worked with in Formula One . This ultimately led to the formation of Podium

Analytics . Podium ’ s mission is to significantly reduce the incidence and impact of sports injuries in young people .

Can you tell us more about Podium ’ s recent mobile app and why there was a need to monitor sports injuries within education ?

One key problem is that , unlike most accidents that happen in a school or corporate environment , there is no obligation for anyone to record an accident that happens on a sports field , so there is very little data about sports injuries at a grassroots level .

As teachers are time-poor and have many other things to do , we needed to build an app that would be very intuitive and allow a teacher to enter the information we need in as short a time as possible . The app also needed to work in a diverse array of environments ; we work with very well-resourced private schools as well as state-funded schools in some of the most deprived areas in the country , and everything in between .

With teachers , coaches and sports medics logging injuries in adolescents , how will this data be utilised ?

Our gathering of injury data is intended to shed light on the number of injuries and the contexts in which they occur . We can understand what injuries are happening in what sports to which participants , by age , gender , and a range of other dimensions . From there , we can identify specific areas where we can make a difference and opportunities for further research , working with NGBs and our Podium Institute to create solutions that are designed for and proven to work in a youth sports environment .

Another aspect of our work is the translation of existing knowledge into a school and club environment . For example , we are very good at putting elite athletes back together again after they get injured , even after some quite serious injuries , but very little of that knowledge is available to your average

Previous page : Damian Smith , CTO , Podium Analytics

WE NEEDED TO BUILD AN APP THAT WOULD BE VERY INTUITIVE AND ALLOW A TEACHER TO ENTER THE INFORMATION WE NEED IN AS SHORT A TIME AS POSSIBLE .