A couple of people have suggested I have a look at the ICD-10-AM codes, as this is how a lot of stats are actually recorded.
The trouble was getting hold of a copy of ICD-10-AM to look at in order to determine what is of interest. It’s a very heavily guarded secret apparently. They’re derived from the ICD-10 standard codes.
As it turns out, there’s a site that provides the ICD-10-CM codes .
The codes appear to be similar for things like head injury, so perhaps this will be “close enough”? For privacy reasons, I might not get deep enough for the differences to be significant, but this is a starting point and will at least get us most of the way there.
The ones that appear to be of interest seem to be the following:
| Code | Description | Reasoning |
| S12 | Neck Fractures (vertebrae) | Too-heavy protective gear may be a factor in whiplash injury, need to ensure we don’t make other problems worse. |
| S14 | Nerve injuries in Neck | Again, related to whiplash and other neck-related injuries. |
| S16 | Tendons/muscles in neck | Once again, whiplash and similar conditions |
| S02 | Skull fractures | This is the area helmets are supposed to protect! |
| S06 | Brain injuries | Again, what helmets are supposed to protect! |
I haven’t gone to the deeper levels for two reasons:
- There may be privacy issues going too much deeper
- The stuff I’ll be looking at will be according to the ICD-10-AM system, which may have slightly different designators at the lower levels.
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