Call to integrate long tail and dark data for the advancement of sports medicine research

Abstract

The proliferation of observational and interventional research in the fields of sports medicine and orthopaedics has resulted in a rapid expansion of available knowledge. However, as the volume of evidence has increased, so has the number of independent investigators leading to the collection and storage of small, granular datasets by individual labs during routine research.1 There are growing concerns within sports medicine and related fields that the complex nature of the current scientific environment may limit the efficiency of data aggregation and that variation in the structure of individual datasets may limit the application of rigorous quantitative methods when answering challenging clinical or practical questions.2 3 Therefore, this editorial aims to introduce the concepts of long tail data and dark data in sports medicine research and describe the implications of both data types for advancing the field. The concepts of long tail data and dark data are becoming increasingly relevant in sports medicine and orthopaedics research. Long tail data refers to the vast amount of small, specialised datasets that exist outside of mainstream, large-scale studies.2 4 These datasets, often collected by individual researchers or small labs, contain valuable information but may be overlooked due to their small size, perceived lack of significance, or correlation with other datasets. For example, in patient-outcomes research, data becomes fragmented between studies or sites depending on when follow-up and final visits take place during the course of care, and also from the structure and frequency of physical assessment sessions typically implemented in preparation for clearance to return to activity. Furthermore, when data is collected as part of patient care, changing measures to align with collaborating institutions or recent research can be onerous and disrupt the workflows of clinicians. Dark data, a subset of long tail data, encompasses the information collected during research …