AOSSM is launching 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. The principal investigator for both studies, Dr. Joe Guettler,
has obtained IRB approval from his institution, William Beaumont Hospital in the Detroit area, and will make his application forms available to anyone
interested in participating. These forms can be used as templates for applications to your IRB. 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 you
r 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.
For those interested in participating, we will have a brief training/Q & A meeting during the AAOS annual meeting in New Orleans
(Friday, March 12, 2010, 12:30 pm).
Below are the documents that we hope 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. We are looking to start both projects around the time youth leagues are holding organizational
meetings before the beginning of the spring 2010 season. You may begin participation at any time, however.
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.
|