GE Healthcare and the National Basketball Association today launched a call for research proposals for tendinopathy. The call for proposals is the first as part of a collaboration between the NBA and GE Healthcare to help research the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of musculoskeletal injuries affecting NBA players and the general population.
The call for proposals seeks to address the natural history of tendinopathy in competitive athletes, the anatomic and dynamic factors that can lead to a negative impact on training or game play and the interventions that can be effective for prevention and treatment. Future calls for proposals may address bone stress injuries, articular cartilage injury, and other important musculoskeletal issues affecting NBA players.
Tendinopathy is a common issue in competitive athletes affecting, in particular among basketball players, the patellar tendon. This condition can impair performance, limit playing time and potentially disrupt an athletic career.
“GE Healthcare is investing in research and development to fast-track advancement in musculoskeletal health,” said Kelly Piacsek, general manager of MR Global Hardware at GE Healthcare. “Through our research collaboration and call for proposals focused on tendinopathy, we hope to encourage scientists, researchers, doctors and innovators worldwide to bring their talents to this effort, accelerate the current understanding of tendinopathy injuries and improve how clinicians leverage state of the art diagnostic tools to advance the understanding, treatment and prevention of these injuries.”
The collaboration and call for proposals is directed by a strategic advisory board led by Dr. John DiFiori, the NBA director of sports medicine, a steering committee, and a panel of scientific peer reviewers for the submitted proposals.
“NBA players are among the best athletes in the world, and their well-being is the league’s highest priority. Our first research effort on tendinopathy is an important part of the NBA’s investment in research to promote player health,” said Dave Weiss, associate vice president and assistant general counsel at the NBA. “We hope that this project and our future research projects with GE Healthcare will improve the long-term health and wellness of NBA players. We are excited to address these issues with NBA team physicians, the National Basketball Players Association, and leading researchers for the benefit of NBA players and our game.”
The call for proposals will award a total of up to $1,500,000 over a three-year period to support research addressing important unanswered questions regarding tendinopathy prevention, diagnosis and treatment. The maximum amount for an individual grant is $300,000 including direct and indirect costs for the entire period of the research. Smaller, focused, impactful projects requiring less support are also encouraged.
The deadline to submit research proposals is Feb. 10, 2016.
To read more about GE Healthcare’s partnership with the NBA, click here.
