I-Corps: Markerless biomechanical evaluation of musculoskeletal disorders to improve rehabilitation outcomes

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种评估肌肉骨骼（MSK）疾病的技术，以改善康复结果。肌肉骨骼疾病降低了数百万患者的生活质量，增加了国家医疗保健费用，并且是美国工作日损失的主要原因。提出的技术可以帮助肌肉骨骼疾病患者更好地了解他们问题的生物力学根源，告知他们的康复计划，并改善他们的康复结果。此外，拟议的技术可以改进患者评估、患者结果和医疗保健提供者的保险报销报告要求的流程。这个I-Corps项目是基于无标记生物力学评估技术的发展。提出的技术旨在自动收集、分析和报告肌肉骨骼疾病患者的生物力学数据。该技术使用无标记运动捕捉相机设备（硬件）以及相应的分析和报告软件，为患有腰痛、下肢肌肉骨骼疾病和一般肌肉骨骼疾病的患者提供可操作的生物力学评估，以改善康复效果。病人被记录下来，视频被计算机视觉算法处理，生成虚拟生物标记物，识别病人的身体位置和关节角度。这些信息可用于生物力学分析，以确定运动缺陷，并可为找到患者疼痛的根本原因提供见解，并为可操作的报告奠定基础。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a technology to evaluate musculoskeletal (MSK) disorders to improve rehabilitation outcomes. Musculoskeletal disorders lower the quality of life for millions of affected individuals, result in increased national healthcare costs, and are a leading cause of lost workdays in the United States. The proposed technology may help patients with musculoskeletal disorders better understand the biomechanical root cause of their problem, inform their rehabilitation plan, and improve their recovery outcome. In addition, the proposed technology may improve the process for patient evaluation, patient outcomes, and reporting requirements for insurance reimbursement of healthcare providers. This I-Corps project is based on the development of a markerless biomechanical evaluation technology. The proposed technology is designed to automate the collection, analysis, and reporting of biomechanical data for patients with musculoskeletal disorders. The technology uses a markerless motion capture camera device (hardware) along with corresponding analysis and reporting software to provide actionable biomechanical evaluations to patients with lower back pain, lower limb musculoskeletal disorders, and general musculoskeletal disorders to improve rehabilitation outcomes. Patients are recorded and the video is processed using computer vision algorithms that generate virtual biomarkers identifying the patient’s body position and joint angles. This information may be used for biomechanical analysis to identify movement deficiencies and may provide insight into finding the root cause of the patient’s pain and create the foundation for actionable reporting.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.