"We've been scanning the athletes looking for asymptomatic lesions," said Dr. van Holsbeeck, Division Head, Musculoskeletal Radiology, Henry Ford Hospital. "These lesions might not cause the athlete any pain but damages can be caused by continuing to train, and that is why it is so important to find the abnormalities early. The compact ultrasound system can easily travel with the teams to track and monitor these lesions throughout the Beijing Games."

In this study, researchers are using GE Healthcare's
LOGIQ i, a lightweight, hand carried ultrasound system that enables real-time diagnosis. This small system is packed full of high quality imaging and visualization tools usually found in a much larger system, and allows clinicians to share information for consultation and to archive results electronically.

"This is a very exciting study for athletes and researchers alike leading up to and after the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing," Dulchavsky said. "In the future, the ability to remotely diagnose will be an extremely valuable tool in continuing to reach individuals and treat communities all around the world. As for athletes, this study empowers athletes and doctors to take a proactive approach with their health, potentially preventing injuries before they even occur."

"Every day an Olympic athlete spends in rehab is a day lost in training, making earlier injury diagnosis and real-time recovery monitoring crucial for elite performance," said Dr. Michael Reed, U.S. Olympic Committee Director of Sports Medicine. "It is increasingly important that as a National Olympic Committee, we have the most innovative tools to help predict, diagnose, treat and monitor sports injuries earlier to ensure a quick return to play. There's no question that GE's ultrasound technology will become a standard tool in healthcare for athletes."

Olympic athletic trainer involvement

As part of GE's commitment to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, LOGIQ i systems were assigned to specific teams and their athletic trainers were instructed on the use of the system closer to the field of play. The athletic trainers commented that ultrasound enabled them to be better explain to the athletes, especially with the new 3D technology, exactly what's going on inside of them. Rather than using abstract medical technology and terminology to tell them what's going on, they can actually show them a picture of it.

The athletic trainers were enthusiastic about the benefits LOGIQ i brings to athletic trainers and athletes:

"We can see structures that are just amazing. It's an amazing unit."

"Ultrasound gives us a much more accurate knowledge for return to play guidelines. It allows us to see exactly where the healing is, the athlete is occurring. It also allows us to do some dynamic evaluations, to put a joint through range of motion, to see the tearing of a muscle, a ligament or a tendon and visualize that and so we have much, much more accurate data on where the athlete is in the healing process."

"It saves time. It gives the athlete direct feedback, it's so nice that the athletic trainers can tell the athlete right on the spot, this is what's going on. It's a very exciting technology."

"One of the best things about the system is the 3D technology where we can actually correlate the image with what the actual anatomy is. With a muscle tear you can actually see the tear through the muscle in the 3D. And also its ease of use.."

"In the future, when we're doing rehabs, we can actually see the healing process and know exactly where we're at as we're going and it helps the athletes to know they are improving. The athletes may not feel like they're improving but if we can show them the picture that their body is healing itself, then it gives them the confidence that we're doing the right things and they will make it back."

"I think that I've really learned that we really are the first line in the diagnosis and treatment of these athletes, that this machine has really set us far above what anybody else can do and it's really made my job a lot easier in deciding what I can do as far as rehab and return to play."