Carestream Researchers to Work with Buffalo Bills on Diagnostic Imaging Solutions to Help Protect Players

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.

A traumatic brain injury (TBI) or a concussion is a serious injury resulting from a blow to the head, which can affect physical, cognitive and emotional behavior. Symptoms may include clumsiness, nausea, confusion, blurry vision and headaches, and some concussions can lead to long-term health problems. A TBI can occur on the athletic field, on the battlefield, at the playground, in a car accident or even at home.

"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, President & CEO, Buffalo Bills. "This collaboration is an important step that will help with this effort."

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, PhD FAAPM, Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering at 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."

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