A new Accelerating Commercialisation grant of nearly $500,000 has put a QUT-designed hamstring muscle tester on the path to production and a step closer to preventing elite athletes from debilitating and costly injury.
The invention, called the NordBord, measures the status of athletes' hamstrings and has been used by some of the world's most renowned football clubs.
QUT exercise scientist and Institute for Health and Biomedical Information (IHBI) member, Dr Tony Shield, initially built the portable prototype with his former QUT PhD student Dr David Opar, now of the Australian Catholic University.
With the help of QUT's technology transfer company, qutbluebox and its start-up Accelerator program, Vald Performance was set up to enable the commercialisation of the NordBord.
Vald Performance Chief Technology Officer Sam James said the Accelerating Commercialisation grant gave the start-up company a shorter runway to put the product on the market.
"We are now even more confident about launching the NordBord in late 2015," he said.
"There is a lot of interest in the product and the additional funding will help bolster the design of the system and ensure that its functionality will exceed expectations."
Mr James said the NordBord was the fastest, easiest and most powerful way to test and monitor hamstring length, and is based on the already popular Nordic hamstring curl technique.
He said the product would also use advanced sensors and data capture software to enable elite sports teams and sport fitness managers to understand their players more intimately.
"So if an athlete is fatigued or coming back from injury, their results from the NordBord will give their coaches an accurate understanding of where they're at, helping them make the right call about whether or not the athlete should take the field," he said.
"The NordBord's software can also be synced back to advanced player management software run by the sporting club, so that any number player management software run by the sporting club, so that any number of other factors can be cross-referenced.
"They can then run analytics and pick trends within their own group of athletes and try to predict when an athlete is fit enough to come back from injury, or when they're at risk of sustaining one."
Mr James said it was important to acknowledge the quality of research produced by researchers and inventors Dr Shield and Dr Opar, which has helped the NordBord to pique the interest of some of the world's largest teams.
"Their research into the causes and mechanisms of hamstring injuries is ground-breaking and using the NordBord as a tool, they're teaching the sporting world how to better manage their players and keep them on the pitch longer," he said.
Accelerating Commercialisation is a Federal Government initiative that offers funding of up to $1 million to entrepreneurs, researchers, inventors and start-ups to address the challenges associated with commercialising novel products, processes and services.
MEDIA CONTACT: Debra Nowland, QUT Media Officer, (Mon, Wed, Thurs) 07 3138 1150 or media@qut.edu.au
