A Low-Cost, Collaborative Tool for the Tracking of Youth Activities to Reduce Risk of Physical Injury

Project Summary Abstract Proposed is an advanced wearable for the prevention and rehabilitation of sport related overuse injuries in youth athletesSignificanceThe National SAFE KIDS Campaignestimates that more thanmillion children are injured annually playing sports or participating in recreational activitiesOf theseoveruse is estimated to causetoof sports injuries and resulted in a total healthcare cost of over $billionChildren who participate in two or more sports that emphasize the same body partfor exampleswimmers and baseball pitchersare at an elevated risk to overuse injuriesBecause youth athletes are still growingcertain overuse injuries may disturb the growth of the boneresulting in angular limb deformitieslength discrepancies or altered joint mechanicscreating the potential for significant long term disabilityCurrent methods of overuse injury preventionrehabilitation are rudimentarye gbaseball pitch countand fail to account for the subtleties of differing player technique and effortHypothesisA system capable of accurately quantifying cumulative injury levels in youth athletes will reduce incidence of and aid in recovery from overuse injuriesSpecific AimsTo prove the feasibility of the proposed system in Phase I IDL willBuild prototype sensor hardwareCollect motion capture data on movements common to baseball playandDevelop algorithms to quantify injury associated with common baseball movementsThe overall phaseeffort will demonstrate the ability of the proposed system to quantify injury associated with different baseball movement Project Narrative Overuse injuries in youth athletes are common placeCurrent methods of prevention and progressive loading during rehabilitation are rudimentarye gbaseball pitch countand fail to account for the subtleties of differing player technique or effortA system capable of quantifying biomechanical loads associated with sports movements will substantially aid physicianstherapistsguardiansand coaches in prevention and rehabilitation efforts