Carestream Health and the Buffalo Bills have entered into an agreement that will aid Carestream's development of advanced medical imaging technology designed to help with earlier detection and monitoring of brain injuries.
This partnership focuses on the need for new technology to help address key concerns in sports medicine, particularly those related to head injuries including early diagnosis and accurate assessment of injured areas, development of medical standards that indicate if an athlete can return to play, and research that can assist in early diagnosis of long-term degenerative medical conditions in the head and brain.
"The NFL supports initiatives that will help us better understand the impact of traumatic brain injuries and the effect on players' health, with the goal of advancing sports medicine to provide better care for all athletes," said Russ Brandon, Bills President and CEO. "This collaboration is an important step that will help with this effort."
Carestream has installed a new CARESTREAM DRX-Ascend System and a DIRECTVIEW CR System at Ralph Wilson Stadium to enable the Buffalo Bills staff to use the company's latest medical imaging technology. Instant access to X-ray images helps medical staff and athletic trainers determine whether a player can return to a game or a practice session, or if further treatment is necessary. In use at hospitals around the world, these systems provide high quality images while reducing radiation exposure, and enable medical professionals to quickly review images which can lead to faster treatment decisions.
The agreement with the Buffalo Bills builds on plans between Carestream and Johns Hopkins University for research and development of new 3D imaging systems, including a cone beam CT system developed for musculoskeletal radiology and orthopaedic imaging of extremities, with applications ranging from traumatic injury to arthritis and osteoporosis. Carestream and Johns Hopkins plan to expand their collaboration to include new systems for imaging of TBI to support Carestream's product development activities that could help improve the diagnosis and treatment of head injuries.
"The prevalence and severity of TBI has come dramatically to light in the last decade," said Dr. Jeffrey H. Siewerdsen of Johns Hopkins University. "Our work will create a system capable of detecting TBI at the point of care, leveraging a major advance in imaging capability to confidently diagnose subtle brain injury and direct patients to appropriate therapy, avoid repeat injury and stem the debilitating effects of undetected disease."
Carestream also will make its market-leading CARESTREAM DRX-Revolution Mobile X-ray System available for use by the Buffalo Bills staff during their regular season game played in Toronto. The DRX-Revolution combines high image quality with the ability to capture medical images of players while in the training room or on the sidelines. Because of its advanced functionality, the DRX-Revolution is often referred to as an "X-ray room on wheels."
