GE Healthcare and the National Basketball Association awarded the first round of six winning research proposals as part of their Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Collaboration.
Here are five highlights:
1. The collaboration focuses on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of musculoskeletal injuries. The first round of research addressed tendinopathy.
2. GE and the NBA awarded more than $1.5 million to support researchers' projects.
3. First round winners include:
• La Trobe University, Dr. Jill Cook: "Patellar Tendon Pathology, Its Development and Relationship with Pain in Elite Athletes."
• University of Calgary, Dr. W. Brent Edwards: "Towards the Real-time Monitoring of Tendon Strain and Cumulative Damage to Minimize the Risk of Patellar Tendinopathy."
• University of Calgary, Dr. Carolyn Emery: "Prevention of Patellar and Achilles Tendinopathies in Youth Basketball."
• University of Wisconsin, Madison, Kenneth Lee, MD: "Platelet-Rich Plasma Therapy for Patellar Tendinopathy: A Randomized Controlled Trial Correlating Clinical, Biomechanical and Novel Imaging Biomarkers."
• Hospital for Special Surgery, O. Kenechi Nwawka, MD: "Prospective Longitudinal Assessment of Patellar Tendinopathy in Elite Basketball Players Using Quantitative Imaging with Correlation to Symptoms and Functional Analysis."
• Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, Dr. Edwin H.G. Oei: "Progressive Tendon-loading Exercise Therapy for Patellar Tendinopathy in Jumping Athletes: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial Evaluated with Advanced 3D Ultrashort Echo Time MRI."
4. John DiFiori, MD, NBA's director of sports medicine, heads the collaboration's strategic advisory board.
5. The second round of research proposals will address myotendinous injuries. The call for these research proposals will occur in June.