GE Healthcare and the National Basketball Association (NBA) have announced six first-round winners of $1.5 million in prizes for research on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of musculoskeletal injuries.
Three of the winners are conducting research involving MRI:
- Dr. Kenneth Lee of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and colleagues plan to evaluate the effectiveness of a nonsurgical intervention for treating patellar tendinopathy and track the healing changes of the patellar tendon using new MR and ultrasound imaging techniques.
- Dr. O. Kenechi Nwawka of the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City and colleagues plan to use ultrasound and MRI to characterize the changes in the patellar tendon over the course of a basketball season.
- Dr. Edwin Oei of Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and colleagues will use ultrashort echo-time MRI to evaluate a new exercise therapy for patellar tendonitis, or "jumper's knee," that requires no specific equipment.
The awards are part of a collaboration between GE and the NBA on sports medicine and orthopedics.
