The overall purpose of the Recreation and Sports Injury Committee is to provide a forum for prevention and control specialists in the area of recreation and sports injury to discuss and advocate research and prevention in this area of injury.  This subcommittee will support individual and organizational efforts to more effectively identify: existing and emerging injury issues; best practices; policy strengths, weaknesses, and gaps; data sources; and research findings in the field of recreation and sports injury.

The objectives of the subcommittee are as follows:

1.            Provide review, analysis and comment on policies that impact the field of recreation and sports injury;

2.            Identify gaps in APHA policy in the area of recreation and sports injury and promote development of policies that fill gaps;

3.            Among injury control practitioners, share best practice in mitigating risks to recreation and sports activists in wide range of areas;

4.            Promote development and dissemination of a standard definition of recreational/sports injuries based on appropriate ICD-9/ICD-10 supplemental injury codes (i.e. E-codes);

5.            Provide a forum for discussion of a means of tracking and trending injury events due to increased activity resulting from chronic disease initiatives which promote physical activity/recreational;

6.            Promote research efforts to better understand injury prevention as it relates to leisure and sports activities;

7.            Share data in specific recreation and sports areas to gain better understanding of patterns and trends in injury in the areas of swimming, boating, hiking, biking, climbing, diving, sports and others.

If you are interested in joining the Recreation and Sports Injury Committee, please contact the committee chair, Dr. Sara Newman, Public Risk Management Program Director, Division of Risk Management, National Park Service.  You can reach Dr. Newman at  Sara_Newman@nps.gov or (202) 513-7225.