Building a Musculoskeletal Screening Questionnaire

Context

Musculoskeletal screening is an important element of athlete management, particularly in certain phases of the training cycle. It is useful for identifying risk factors that could predispose an athlete to injury - for example, previous injuries, reduced range of movement or imbalances. Screening an athlete early in the training cycle allows the team supporting them to work on reducing the risk factors or work around those which cannot be altered.

It can be useful to compare screening results over time to assess whether an athlete is equally ready to start pre-season training as the previous year or to track improvements as the season progresses. These comparisons can be tracked using an event form.

Storing all related data in the same event form record can be useful when it comes to reporting, but there may be instances where certain fields should only be editable by certain people. An advanced field property, Can be entered by, can be used when the distinction is between professional and non-professional users, but when further granularity is needed, Restriction policies can be applied. These are based on roles such that only people with access to a specific role are able to edit selected fields or sections in a form.

Screening forms can be very detailed and it may become difficult to find important information within the record. For example, it may be useful to highlight key findings from the screening that require following up or will guide recommendations from the assessor. These key findings can be summarized in event forms through the use of importance indicators and Important summary fields.

Goals

The goal of this tutorial is to create an event form to capture information about musculoskeletal screening results. This workflow is intended to be used by both athletes and medical practitioners or sport scientists: an athlete can fill out their injury history prior to the assessment, and the staff member can fill out the screening portion of the form. Both parties can sign the screening record to confirm that the information is accurate.

The form can be filled out by athletes on the Athlete app but staff members should use Smartabase Online to make use of the importance indicators in the form.

Outcomes

1. Create a basic musculoskeletal screening event form.
   1. Create a section for an athlete to enter their injury history prior to the screening assessment.
   2. Create a section for an assessor to record the outcomes of a screening assessment.
   3. Create a section for an assessor to summarize the screening assessment with the athlete.
2. Create a Restriction policy for a musculoskeletal screening workflow.
3. Apply a Restriction policy to a musculoskeletal screening event form.
4. Test your workflow.

Outcome 1: Create a basic musculoskeletal screening event form

1. Using the Event forms tool in the builder interface, create an event form named Musculoskeletal Screening.
2. In the form properties, make the form available on the Athlete app. This will allow the athlete to fill out some information prior to the screening assessment.
   

   

3. Configure the form Save properties.
   1. Disable the Save and close button.
   2. Enable the Save and continue button and enter Update as the button Label.
   3. Enable the Save and redirect button and enter Submit as the button Label.
   4. Set the redirect to Home and apply the redirect to All users.
   5. Disable the Draft button.

Part A: Create a section for an athlete to enter their injury history prior to the screening assessment.

1. Name the first section Part 1: Medical History.
2. Add a Paragraph text field and name it Injury history.
   • In the Advanced properties, set the Field size to Extra large.

Part B: Create a section for an assessor to record the outcomes of a screening assessment.

1. Add a new section and name it Part 2: Screening Details.
2. In the section Advanced properties, set the Column layout to 3 columns.
3. Add a Single selection field and name it Neck with options for Normal and Abnormal.
4. Add a Paragraph text field and name it Neck Details.
5. Add a Tick field and name it Neck Important with options for No and Yes.
   • In the field Advanced properties, set Importance selector to Yes.
6. Duplicate the fields from steps 3-5 for different body areas that will be tested in the musculoskeletal screening. For this simple example, we have configured the form to assess the following areas:
   • Neck
   • Shoulder
   • Elbow
   • Back
   • Hip
   • Knee
   • Ankle

     

     A quick way to duplicate these fields is to duplicate the entire section for each body area. Rename the fields, move them into the original section and delete the duplicate sections as you go. 

7. Configure the default advanced form properties, including setting Auto shorten to Shorten. For other recommendations, see our article on Form properties.
   

   

Part C: Create a section for an assessor to summarize and finalize the screening assessment with the athlete.

1. Add a new section and name it Part 3: Summary and Recommendations.
2. Add an Important summary field and name it Screening summary.
3. Add a Paragraph text field and name it Recommendations.
   • In the Advanced properties, set the Field size to Extra large.
4. Add two Signature fields and name them Athlete signature and Assessor signature.
   

   

5. Save the form.

Outcome 2: Create a Restriction policy for a musculoskeletal screening workflow

1. Go to the administration interface. If you already have separate roles for the people who will review the screening assessment and people who will complete the screening assessment, you can update their existing roles so that both roles have Write access to the Musculoskeletal Screening form.
   If suitable roles do not already exist, create two new roles as follows:
   • Athlete role for people who will undergo the screening assessment. Provide the minimum level of system permissions and the Write data permission for the Musculoskeletal Screening form.
   • Assessor role for people who will review the screening assessment. Provide the minimum level of system permissions and the Write data permission for the Musculoskeletal Screening form.
2. Using the Restriction policies administration tool, create a new Restriction policy.
3. Name the policy Musculoskeletal screening review and, if needed, provide a description.
4. Click the Save button.
5. Add the Assessor role from step 1 or the relevant equivalent if using existing roles. Make sure that only the reviewers have access to this role - do not include a role that athletes also have access to.
   

   

6. Save the Restriction policy.

Outcome 3: Apply a Restriction policy to a musculoskeletal screening event form

1. Return to the builder interface (refresh the page if it was already open) and open the Musculoskeletal Screening event form.
2. In the Screening Details section properties, go to the Policies to restrict editing tab and select the Musculoskeletal screening review restriction policy from the drop-down list.
   

   

3. In the Recommendations field properties, go to the Policies to restrict editing tab and select the Musculoskeletal screening review restriction policy from the drop-down list.
   

   

4. Repeat step 3 with the Assessor signature field.
5. Save the form.

Test your workflow

1. Assign yourself access to the Athlete role, log into the Athlete app and create a new Musculoskeletal Screening record for yourself.
   • Ensure you can fill out the Injury history and Athlete signature fields.
   • You will be able to see but cannot edit the fields in the screening details section or the Assessor signature field.
2. Remove the Patient role from your account and add the Assessor role. Log into Smartabase Online, load a group that your account is a member of and open the Musculoskeletal Screening record that you created in step 1.
   • You should be able to fill out all fields in the event form.
   • Fill out the screening fields, setting some body areas as Abnormal and entering Details.
   • Use the tick boxes to mark some areas as Important. Check that they appear in the Screening summary field as you select and deselect them.