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

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种技术来评估肌肉骨骼（MSK）疾病，以改善康复结果。肌肉骨骼疾病降低了数百万受影响个体的生活质量，导致国家医疗保健成本增加，并且是美国工作日损失的主要原因。 拟议的技术可以帮助肌肉骨骼疾病患者更好地了解其问题的生物力学根源，为他们的康复计划提供信息，并改善他们的康复结果。 此外，所提出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的报告要求的过程。 这个I-Corps项目是基于无标记生物力学评估技术的发展。所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摄像机设备（硬件）沿着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，以改善康复结果。 记录患者并使用计算机视觉算法处理视频，该算法生成识别患者身体位置和关节角度的虚拟生物标志物。 这些信息可用于生物力学分析，以识别运动缺陷，并可提供洞察力，以找到患者疼痛的根本原因，并为可操作的报告奠定基础。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

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.