MADISON — Researchers led by the UW School of Medicine and Public Health were awarded a four-year, $4 million grant by the NFL to study the most common injury suffered by NFL players: hamstring injuries.
The grant is part of the league's effort to improve their understanding and prevent lower extremity injuries, including strains to soft tissue such as hamstrings.
The UW researchers' aim now is to find out athletes' tendency for hamstring strain injuries and identify ways to lessen the chance for injuries, goals that could potentially reduce the injury burden on the player, the university said in a statement Thursday.
Bryan Heiderscheit, PhD, professor of orthopedics and rehabilitation at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, said in that release that “the persistent symptoms, slow healing, and high rate of re-injury make hamstring strains a frustrating and disabling injury for athletes and a challenge for sports medicine clinicians to treat."
The UW's team of multi-disciplinary researchers will use methods including quantitative imaging, on-field biomechanics and computational analytics.
Other researchers on the study include David Opar, PhD, Australian Catholic University SPRINT Centre; and Silvia Blemker, PhD, co-founder of Springbok Analytics.
