Wiemi Douoguih, MD, Medical Director, MedStar Sports Medicine; Chair NBA Research Committee; Study Co-Principal Investigator

“For professional athletes, injuries can take a huge toll on their career success, so it has long been one of the goals of the NBA’s Research Committee to promote player health and wellness in the interest of reducing injuries and lengthening careers. This research lays the foundation to help us better understand the balance between playing, training, and rest so that players can remain as healthy as possible, coaches and teams can have their best season, and fans can see their favorite stars play the game.”

Scott Magargee, CEO and Co-Founder, Springbok Analytics

“We are pleased to continue our ongoing collaboration with the NBA for this study. NBA, the NBPA and GE HealthCare are at the forefront of better understanding athlete health and performance, and we are proud that our muscle analytics technology - improving personalized training, injury knowledge, and return to play decision-making - is playing an important role.”

Asheesh Bedi, MD, Chief Medical Officer, National Basketball Players Association; Study Co-Principal Investigator

"We are excited to announce this first-of-its-kind study on workload. This has been an area of great interest, and there has yet to be a comprehensive data set on professional athletes to assess the impact of workload on musculoskeletal and joint health. This study is invaluable in bringing together medical professionals and key opinion leaders in the scientific community to advance the health and wellness of our athletes. Members of the Next Gen Basketball Players Union have powered this study throughout the 2023-2024 season, and their commitment underscores their passion for the long-term well-being of athletes at all levels."

Study Methodology and Technology Used

This study features GE HealthCare’s SIGNA™ Premier 3.0T wide-bore MRI scanner enabled with AIRTM Recon DL AI software for fast high-resolution imaging, and specialized ultrashort-TE T2 star research sequences to identify structural and compositional changes in the knee joint.

GE HealthCare’s LOGIQTM E10s Ultrasound with ML4-20-D transducer was used to perform serial Ultrasound elastography diagnostics on the knee (patellar tendon) of participating players. The ML4-20-D probe uses XDclearTM transducer technology—an innovative combination of advanced materials and acoustic design— that provides high quality images to support musculoskeletal assessment. The LOGIQ E10 Series, equipped with advanced tools including 2D Shear Wave Elastography, enables qualitative and quantitative assessment of tissue elasticity.

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