Henry Ford Radiology Wins Gold in Imaging Technology: Teleradiology for the Olympic Atheletes!!

The Beijing Olympics amidst the grandiose opening and days of exciting games, presented much scope for technological applications. The latest comes in medical technology whereby it is not only possible to witness live ultrasound of an athlete via the internet, but also carry out prognosis for athletes’ susceptibility towards injuries.

The Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit has undertaken a research program being funded by General Electric to improve the health of athletes on the field. The US women soccer’s team playing at the Beijing Olympics is the study group for the researchers along with Boxing, Weightlifting and Wrestling. Doctors have now made it possible to forecast which athlete might be more at risk of developing injuries during exercising and accordingly, alter the exercising regimen to individual needs. This can be analyzed with the help of baseline data of players. In this study, athletes were scanned prior to their leaving for the games and data collected revealed certain damages and anomalies with their tendons and ligament structure. It thus, helped in developing individual plans and also in some cases, in deciding which player should take rest.

This technology will equip the doctors with a ‘filtering tool’ and provide fast and accurate method of determining injuries. Only future will tell the usefulness and effectiveness of this tool.

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