International registry aims to round up rodeo injuries

Better tracking may find commonalities that could lead to the development and implementation of preventive measures.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. Aug. 20, 2007.

In order to improve the health of those who participate in rodeos, physicians and health care personnel who provide care in this setting launched last month a registry to record the most devastating injuries that occur in this sport. Work is also underway to analyze some of the medical-related data that already exist and set up a conference to bring together those who work in this area.

"Rodeo medicine is really in its early stages right now. What we're trying to do is solidify what we have been doing for the benefit of these cowboys and translate the data into something beneficial," said Mark Brandenburg, MD, vice chair of the Dept. of Emergency Medicine at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. He is also one of the organizers of the Second International Rodeo Medicine Conference, to be held in Tulsa in January 2008.

The Rodeo Catastrophic Injury Registry, based at the University of Calgary, Alberta, will collect data about life-threatening and crippling injuries that have already occurred and those that happen over at least the next four years.

Reports can be filed by rodeo athletes, event organizers, medical personnel and spectators. After the information is finalized, identifying details will be removed in order to make the registry anonymous.

"Anyone, anywhere in the world can access this database and report a catastrophic injury," said Dale Butterwick, the athletic trainer and associate professor of kinesiology at the University of Calgary, who is the driving force behind the registry.