The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and PRIVIT Announce Partnership, Unveil New Prep Profile to Promote Health and Safety of Athletes

COLUMBUS, OH--(Marketwired - November 11, 2015) - Built on a shared vision, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and PRIVIT today announced a strategic alliance focused on implementing best practices that improve athlete health and safety. Leveraging the strengths of both ACSM and PRIVIT, the partnership's first offering is the ACSM PREP Profile. Powered by Privit, PREP Profile is an online preparticipation physical evaluation (PPE) tool that will vastly improve efforts to protect the health and safety of all athletes.

To meet the growing demand for preparticipation health records and emergency information, PREP Profile focuses on four key areas of athlete safety:

• PROTECT. ACSM's PREP Profile automates the collection and management of health history information, which helps to mitigate an individual's risk on and off the field.
• RESPOND. ACSM's PREP Profile allows authorized personnel to react quickly by providing immediate access to health information in case of a game emergency.
• EVALUATE. ACSM's PREP Profile helps medical personnel better assess an individual's health prior to participation for the most accurate evaluation, diagnosis and treatment.
• PERFORM. ACSM's PREP Profile aggregates de-identified data providing information about athletes that can establish benchmarks and improve programs for optimal performance.

Using the PREP Profile, athletes, families, coaches, physicians and trainers can easily manage an individual's health history, quickly and accurately uncover potential health issues, and have critical information available in the event of an emergency. PREP Profile also assists athletic trainers and coaches in critical situations on the field by providing emergency athlete health information that is accessible from their mobile devices.

"We are pleased to partner with PRIVIT, the leading provider of online PPE solutions, in raising awareness of the importance of pre-screening athletes prior to sport participation," said Jim Whitehead, executive vice president and CEO of ACSM. "When medical professionals are provided with a comprehensive health history in the PREP Profile, they are able to better evaluate the athlete and potentially uncover any condition that may result in catastrophic injury, or respond quickly and appropriately in emergency situations."

ACSM is the largest sports medicine and exercise science organization in the world and has been actively promoting athlete safety for more than 60 years. PRIVIT provides the sports industry's number one software solution for automating the PPE process, which is the driver behind PREP Profile. Both organizations are committed to providing stakeholders with the knowledge they need to make critical decisions -- before, during and after athletic participation.

"The more organizations know about their athletes, the more the coaches, trainers and medical teams are able to better train, treat, and help prevent or reduce injuries on the field," said Jeffrey Sopp, CEO of PRIVIT. "More and more sport organizations are requiring their athletes to submit health information, and all coaches are required to have emergency information on hand at all times. PREP Profile provides an efficient, convenient and secure way to meet this demand."

Up to 90 percent of potential health issues can be identified when a comprehensive health history is provided to a physician during the sport physical. For years, organizations have been trying to develop a standard for the health information collected for the PPE process. With the level of information that needs to be collected across the various age groups, there has not been a consistent method for collecting this information.

Leveraging technology to implement best practices in the collection and management of health history information from athletes helps mitigate risks in the standard of care provided by athletic departments. Using technology, athletic departments are able to collect consistent athlete health information and increase compliance for managing the process.

Technology also provides athletic associations the ability to create benchmarks on their athletic programs to improve performance. Capturing de-identified data, athletic associations have the ability to evaluate reported injuries that are still unresolved and symptomatic to aid in the development of training and conditioning programs to help reduce injuries.

"The ability to collect and analyze de-identified data from the PPE may also allow us to advance the quality of the questions and potentially track outcomes across youth, high school and college sports careers," said William Roberts, M.D., a medical advisor for Privit.

Powered by Privit, PREP Profile provides a secure and online solution that is configurable for the collection and management of health related information required from athletes. One of the advantages to using technology to collect health information is it keeps everything in one location and is easily accessible by authorized personnel. This reduces the amount of time athletic departments spend shuffling paperwork and allows coaches and athletic trainers more time with athletes. In addition, having information available in a secured online platform allows users to easily enter information and complete the process using mobile digital devices they use every day.

About The American College of Sports Medicine:

The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) is the largest sports medicine and exercise science organization in the world. More than 50,000 international, national and regional members are dedicated to advancing and integrating scientific research to provide educational and practical applications of exercise science and sports medicine.

About PRIVIT®:

PRIVIT® was established in 2009, and provides a secure cloud-based patented technology for the collection, distribution, and analysis of personal health information. Compliant with International privacy laws, we are dedicated to providing secure and easy-to-use tools for managing personal health information. Our reach is global and our cloud-based products are transforming how people like you and organizations are managing and sharing personal health information. Please visit www.PRIVIT.com for the latest news and in-depth information about PRIVIT® and its brands.