May 1, 2016New Way to Detect ACL Risk
The aftermath of ACL injuries can be tough to handle, ranging from long rehabs to increased chances of developing osteoarthritis. New sports medicine research is aiming to prevent the injury from occurring.
An article from Newsy explains that Dr. Aaron Gray, a sports medicine doctor at the University of Missouri, is using Microsoft Kinect’s motion-sensing technology to detect risk factors for ACL injuries. The software that has been developed can be taken to high schools and gyms to examine the way athletes jump and land.
“It’s portable, it’s lightweight and it doesn’t take any markers,” Gray told Newsy. “So that way, you can put people through, and you can test them very rapidly. … We’re trying to bring expensive lab-based tests to the masses. We want to make things that have been proven in the lab through previous medical research and make those accessible to any athlete anywhere in the country or anywhere in the world.”
Gray’s research is focusing on female high school athletes—especially basketball and soccer players—due to an increased prevalence of ACL tears among females.
