The 2016 NFL Combine starts today with the medical evaluation of more than 300 players in Indianapolis. This year a hi-tech addition has been made to the proceedings that will allow all teams to diagnose in seconds a players’s potential for injury with a new X-ray imaging system.
Carestream, a worldwide provider of healthcare IT solutions based in Rochester, New York, will introduce the new Carestream DRX Plus 3543 detector during the NFL Combine. This cassette-size device will produce high quality X-ray exams in seconds. The detector works like taking a photo with a tablet, then wirelessly transmits digital images to the capture console installed at Lucas Oil Stadium; afterwards, the pictures are ready for immediate viewing and can be forwarded to a printer.
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For any NFL team, drafting damaged goods is always a risk and every team will pore over the medical updates of each player at the combine.
Top college players like Myles Jack of UCLA, Kendall Fuller of Virginia Tech, or Southern Cal Max Tuerk, are coming off knee injuries but are eligible to play in the NFL next season. Each one is expected to be selected in first three rounds of the NFL Draft in May.
Scouts and coaches certainly would appreciate their physical efforts in Indianapolis during the combine, but they also need to prove their injuries are healing in order to keep their value at the draft. The Carestream DRX Plus 3543 can help team doctors determine the severity of their playing wounds.
“Medical is the most important part of the combine”, said Dr. David Chao, a former NFL head team physician. “Medical staffs rely on what they see and feel during the medical exam.”
All players are subject to additional tests conducted at Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, where they spend the first two days of the NFL Combine. Since 2013, the hospital conducts a high volume of chest, orthopedic and other types of X-ray imaging exams on future NFL players with the Carestream family of X-Ray systems.
Also, the healthcare IT company is developing a new 3D extremity imaging system to detect injuries that uses cone beam computer tomography technology to capture weight-bearing and other types of extremity exams. This is part of ongoing trials and research studies conducted by UBMD Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine (Buffalo, N.Y.) and Erie County Medical Center (Buffalo, N.Y.).
In addition to the NFL Combine, the Buffalo Bills, the Green Bay Packers and the San Diego Chargers, are currently using Carestream’s advanced digital radiology products to diagnose player injuries on their current rosters.