Introduction
Like the state it calls home, the University of Texas at Austin is a bold, ambitious leader. Ranked among the largest and best research universities in the country, UT Austin is home to more than 51,000 students and 3,000 teaching faculty. The Texas Athletics Applied Sports Science department applies the latest in human performance research to enhance student-athlete health and development. Their mission is to “provide coaches and trainers with unique, accurate, and actionable information in a timely manner and support athlete growth and development through monitoring and education.”
Learn more about the Texas Athletics Applied Sports Science department by visiting their website.
Key Takeaways
The Opportunity
Texas Athletics initially deployed Smartabase with a small percentage of its total student-athlete population. Soon realizing that this solution simplified data aggregation and interpretation, the leadership team decided to extend the scope of the project to encompass all the school’s varsity sports. This presented the opportunity to have a greater impact on the performance, healthcare, wellness, and injury management of more student-athletes.
The Challenge
Like many college athletic departments, Texas Athletics was struggling to manage student-athlete performance, health, and wellness data across multiple disparate repositories. Staff members found it difficult to find the precise information they needed, when then needed it, to make it useful to student-athlete preparation, recovery, and injury management.
The Solution
Deploying Smartabase across all sports has enabled Texas Athletics to unite the collection, collation, and visualization of performance, wellness, and health data. This unique combination of an EMR and athlete performance management system enables sports scientists, coaches, and medical personnel to easily access, target, and apply data-driven insights.
The Impact
The vertically integrated Smartabase platform is helping Texas Athletics retain institutional knowledge, share information across performance and medical disciplines, and apply a cohesive approach to performance management. Since extending this solution across the entire department, the timeliness and accuracy of decision-making has improved, and staff members are better able to meet student-athletes’ needs on and off the field.