Sports: Injury Prevention & Performance

Reported December 2006

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- Football is a tough game. One hard hit can take you out for the season, and nobody knows that better than number 32, Willie Byrd.

"I took a head-on collision to the knee with a helmet," he says. That hit tore Byrd's ACL. Now, he's is working with physical therapist Michael Way to get back into shape. They're using new "Motion Monitor" technology at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem.

"This gives us a very accurate and detailed objective measure of how much a joint is moving," Way tells Ivanhoe.

The sophisticated 3-D, computer-based technology looks at the body as an integrated system. Electrodes connected to several points on Byrd's body are read by magnetic trackers to show exactly how each joint moves and its range of motion. The information is translated into animation.

"We can see small variations that we would sometimes have difficulty seeing with our own eyes," Way says.

The Motion Monitor cannot only help athletes get back in the game, but also prevent injuries. "If you're looking at just his arm movement, you're going to think everything is very symmetrical," Way says. "If you come down here, you'll see this shoulder blade is moving a lot more than that left one."

He also uses it to help golfers. "Right at impact, she's got another shift backwards which is taking a lot of power away from the swing," Way says. Not only improving their game, but getting them back in it.

In addition to golf swings, baseball pitches, and sports involving running, the Motion Monitor can also be used to help businesses track if repetitive motion hurts their employees and shows them how to prevent injuries on the job.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Winston-Salem, NC 27157
(336) 716-2255
(800) 446-2255
http://www1.wfubmc.edu

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