AOSSM is conducting two multi-center studies that will explore elbow and shoulder problems in young pitchers.
Members who have ties to local youth baseball leagues or teams and those who treat 20 or more young pitchers per year
are invited to participate in either study. These studies are:
1) A community-based survey of youth baseball pitchers (ages 9 through seniors in high school) regarding the types of
levels of activities that may predispose them to overuse injuries as well as any elbow or shoulder problems they may have experienced.
Your participation in this study would involve contacting league officials prior to the start of the 2010 spring season, discussing the
goals of the survey, and assessing their interest in involving the teams in their league in this survey. For those leagues that are
willing to participate, we encourage you to schedule a meeting with coaches, parents, and players to briefly discuss overuse injuries in
young pitchers (we will send a PowerPoint on baseball overuse injuries that is being developed for the AOSSM STOP Sports Injuries Campaign
to use or adapt if you would like), present the survey, and distribute the questionnaire to coaches or parents for their review.
2) A clinic-based study of youth baseball pitchers (again, ages 9 through high school seniors) who seek care from a participating physician.
The same questionnaire used in Study 1 will be administered to those patients meeting the inclusion criteria (i.e., pitched in at least one
organized baseball game during the prior 12 months). Physicians will conduct a structured physical examination and complete a brief form
that captures the information from the exam and other diagnostic information.
In order to participate in either study, you must obtain approval from an Institutional Review Board (IRB), which is a committee at most medical
institutions and academic centers designated to protect the rights of people participating in research. IRBs require all sites that intend to collect
data to complete an application for review by the committee. Although slightly different at each site, applications to IRBs generally require a
description of the proposed study, copies of any measures to be used, and consent forms. You can download the templates below and adapt for your
institution.
If you do not have access to an IRB, you can receive approval through the studies' central site, William Beaumont Hospital in the Detroit area.
Because these studies only involve very minimal risk
to subjects, you will be able to request an “Expedited” review which can take as little as two weeks for approval. AOSSM will provide assistance to your
your designee with the IRB submission process and will send you all the templates if you would like to participate. AOSSM staff can generally complete
many of the forms for you if you do not have research support.
Below are the documents that will be useful in preparing applications to your IRB.
Those documents pertinent to the survey study have “Survey Study” in the document titles while those relevant to the Clinic-Based study have
“Clinic Study” in the document title:
Documents for Survey Study:
Documents for Clinic-Based Study:
As noted on the forms, you will need to extract information from the above documents to insert into your institution’s IRB forms.
Most of the questions that you might have about the studies we hope are addressed in the IRB application templates. Note that both of these
projects can be submitted for “Expedited” review. You may begin participation at any time, after you have received IRB approval.
Some additional notes:
1. AOSSM launched an on-line version of the revised pitchers survey. This is only to be used for the survey study and not the clinic-based study
(in which we need to link the patient and physician forms). It is completely optional whether you use the on-line version as it may be more
convenient or practical to distribute the paper forms. If you would like to utilize the on-line survey, you can send the link below to league officials,
coaches, parents, etc.:
www.surveymonkey.com/s/pitching
2. Once you have obtained IRB approval, please send AOSSM your approval letter(s). AOSSM will then print off the study forms for you with designated ID #’s
if you’re using paper forms. Once you have collected a batch of completed forms, you can use the AOSSM FedEx account number to send them back here.
Contact Bart Mann for the AOSSM FedEx number.
3. If you have obtained IRB approval through the central site (William Beaumont Hospital), please print off the consent/assent forms below to use with
your subjects. If you obtained IRB approval through your own institution, you will need to make copies of the forms with the IRB approval stamp.
Please send Bart Mann at AOSSM copies of all signed assent/consent forms (you should keep the originals).
4. If you are participating in the clinic-based study, remember to ask any patient you see between the ages of 9- and 18-years-old whether they have
pitched in the last 12 months. The control group will consist of those who have pitched but who are seeking treatment for a non-shoulder/elbow problem.
For example, a 14-year-old boy sprains an ankle playing soccer but who is also a pitcher would be a candidate for the control group. On the other hand,
we are excluding kids with a traumatic arm injury not from pitching. For example, a medial epicondyle fracture from falling off a roof would make the
elbow exam meaningless and a shoulder dislocation from skiing would also render the exam useless on a pitching arm.
5. Audio and PowerPoint presentations from the informational meeting held in New Orleans can be obtained at:
www.sportsmed.org/tabs/resources/podcasts/aossm_podcasts.aspx. The
audio can also be downloaded as a podcast from iTunes by doing a search for “AOSSM.”
If you have any questions or would like to get involved, please feel free to contact the Principal Investigator,
Joe Guettler, or AOSSM Director of Research, Bart Mann.
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