Lower extremity athletic injuries can result in significant time lost from sport, financial and psychological ramifications, and a high risk for re-injury. Optimizing current injury prevention and rehabilitation practices can reduce the risk of primary and secondary injury. The advent and continued development of wearable technology may allow clinicians access to previously unavailable data. Wearable technology can provide more precise measures of motion, force, or pressure than previous clinical measures. These novel techniques can be implemented both in and out of clinical settings, potentially extending the reach of clinicians to actual sport participation environments.
While there is great potential in using this technology to inform clinical decision making, there is a lack of evidence on the integration and implementation of these technologies. Much of the existing evidence focuses on descriptive studies of normative data sets of healthy individuals and athletes, with very little focus on application. The contributions to this Research Topic will begin to address this major gap in the literature.
The purpose of this Research Topic is to gather the growing body of evidence that explores the topic of wearable technology in lower extremity injury prevention and rehabilitation. Topics include the use of wearable technology in:
• Injury risk screening.
• Injury prevention and risk reduction programs.
• Post-injury and post-operative rehabilitation, including assessment of progress and exercise prescription.
• Return-to-sport participation assessments.
• Athlete monitoring during team or individual sport.
We welcome original submissions addressing these or similar issues using a variety of methodological approaches (e.g., quantitative, qualitative, mixed-method, systematic reviews, meta-analysis).
Lower extremity athletic injuries can result in significant time lost from sport, financial and psychological ramifications, and a high risk for re-injury. Optimizing current injury prevention and rehabilitation practices can reduce the risk of primary and secondary injury. The advent and continued development of wearable technology may allow clinicians access to previously unavailable data. Wearable technology can provide more precise measures of motion, force, or pressure than previous clinical measures. These novel techniques can be implemented both in and out of clinical settings, potentially extending the reach of clinicians to actual sport participation environments.
While there is great potential in using this technology to inform clinical decision making, there is a lack of evidence on the integration and implementation of these technologies. Much of the existing evidence focuses on descriptive studies of normative data sets of healthy individuals and athletes, with very little focus on application. The contributions to this Research Topic will begin to address this major gap in the literature.
The purpose of this Research Topic is to gather the growing body of evidence that explores the topic of wearable technology in lower extremity injury prevention and rehabilitation. Topics include the use of wearable technology in:
• Injury risk screening.
• Injury prevention and risk reduction programs.
• Post-injury and post-operative rehabilitation, including assessment of progress and exercise prescription.
• Return-to-sport participation assessments.
• Athlete monitoring during team or individual sport.
We welcome original submissions addressing these or similar issues using a variety of methodological approaches (e.g., quantitative, qualitative, mixed-method, systematic reviews, meta-analysis).
