Sports Biostatistician: a critical member of all sports science and medicine teams for injury prevention.

Sports science and medicine need specialists to solve the challenges that arise with injury data. In the sports injury field, it is important to be able to optimise injury data to quantify injury occurrences, understand their aetiology and most importantly, prevent them. One of these specialty professions is that of Sports Biostatistician. The aim of this paper is to describe the emergent field of Sports Biostatistics and its relevance to injury prevention. A number of important issues regarding this profession and the science of sports injury prevention are highlighted. There is a clear need for more multidisciplinary teams that incorporate biostatistics, epidemiology and public health in the sports injury area. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.