What if a doctor could look at LeBron James’s legs and detect a weakened muscle that could make him more sensitive to an injury? Having this knowledge could allow James to strengthen the region, to avoid missing games and perhaps giving the future temple of the NBA renown a chance to play in the middle of the forties.
Imagine if the doctors of the Los Angeles Dodgers team had access to a more detailed image of the elbow of Shohei Ohtani before hurting him late in the 2023 season. Ohtani could he have won 20 games as a launcher in 2024 more From its historic season of 50 Homer and 50-Base?
The new Springbok technology, based in Charlottesville, brings these scenarios in the field of possibility. Engineering school teacher at the University of Virginia Silvia Blemker And the professor of the School of Medicine Craig Meyer, as well as the former Kinesiology Professor of the School of Education of the UVA, Joe Hart, who is now vice-president of research at the University of Caroline from the North, founded the company.
Springbok AI for MRI changes the situation
For many years, the gold stallion to detect sports injuries was magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, but Springbok changes the game with muscleview, a muscle health analysis based on the artificial intelligence of images of MRI who received American food and drugs in October.
“Our technology provides important information on asymmetries, imbalances and areas of weakness that are used by clinicians to adapt the training to meditate possible injury,” said Blemker. “Then, in terms of recovery of an injury, technology is used to help customize and target training for more efficient and efficient recovery and return to sport.”
Currently, the NBA, the NFL, the MLB and the Premier League players use the owner technology of Springbok, patented through UVA license and companies group.
Springbok technology also helps people with facioscapulo-human muscular dystrophy, making blemker, Meyer and Hart a slam-dunk for the innovative Edlich-Henderson Prize for UVA.
“Springbok is a brilliant example of what can happen when a group of extremely intelligent people from various departments through the field is putting in a room,” said Richard W. Chylla, executive director of UVA licenses and companies. “And the list of long -term applications for technology is infinite. It is not only for athletes.
Springbok transforms MRIs into black and white into 3D rendered in color that measure and compare muscles to each other at an unavailable level of precision elsewhere.
CEO and co-founder Scott Magargee, director of Xue Feng technology, Savannah Benusa, Lara Riem, Matt Brown and several UVA alumni led the Springbok team.
Springbok breakthrough has occurred when Feng has developed an algorithm using artificial intelligence and automatic learning to reduce the treatment time of each MRI from around 50 hours to an hour.
Hart said technology had the potential to help professional athletes and weekend warriors.
“Imagine going to the gymnasium and the coach telling you” do this exercise and this exercise “. Well, if the coach knew exactly what muscle was smaller or smaller than normal, he could tell you the exercises that would be the most used per hour in the day, you have to do your exercise, “said Hart.
Measure the effectiveness of drugs
Technology can also measure the effectiveness of a drug to increase muscle mass and improve function. Springbok has teamed up with FSHD World Research FoundationWho supports the best medical research on facioscapulo-human muscular dystrophy.
“The ability to prescribe the most effective muscular treatments is based on specific measures,” said Hart. “I think that’s why Springbok will continue to succeed. We are really the best to quickly measure and view the sizes of each skeletal muscle in a way that is easily understandable by patients and providers. »»
Last month, Springbok collected more than $ 5 million in funding from NBA and CAV Angels, a non -profit group of former UVA students, teachers, families, students and friends who invest in companies and founders linked to the UVA.
The annual event of the innovator of the annual year of Edlich-Henderson is on February 20.From 3.30 p.m. to 6 p.m., at the UVA School of Data Science, and is free and open to the public. Parking in the Emmett / Ivy garage is also free.