SSC Biomechanics Analytical Data Challenge

[Chris Richter]

SSC Biomechanics Analytical Data Challenge

The Sports Surgery Clinic is a JCI accredited Private Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital in Dublin which opened in 2007. It is a leading centre internationally for Orthopaedics, Spinal Surgery, Sports Cardiology and Sport and Exercise Medicine. The clinic has 72 beds in-patient beds, five theatres, a world class diagnostic imaging department with two MRIs, 64 slice CT, and MSK specialist radiologist-led ultrasound service. Services include Sports Cardiology, Exercise Physiology, 3D-Biomechanics, Strength and Conditioning & Physiotherapy. In 2016 the Sports Surgery Clinic will open a brand new, custom built 10,000 sq ft Sports Medicine Centre with Sports Medicine Physicians, Physiotherapy, Strength & Conditioning, Rehabiliation, Biomechanics, Running and Research facilities currently seeing over 34,000 patients a year and expected to rise to 50,000 per annum in the next 18 months.

Facilities include; 3 embedded Woodway treadmills with Video feedback, 8 Eliko equipped lifting platforms including 2 with Gym Aware and Force plate synchronisation, 2D Dartfish TV video feeback, Life size Biomechanics Video feedback wall including distraction and visual skill training, 3D VICON biomechanics laboratories, Cortex MetaMax Exercise Physiology analysis and a full Concussion suite analysis including King Devick, Visual tracking Goggles and Neck strain assessment of isometric load. The current Sports Medicine and Performance team is comprised of a staff of over 60 personnel including Administration, Consultant Sports Physicians, Physiotherapists, Biomechanics, Strength and Conditioning Staff and Research staff. The volume of biomechanical tracking data produced in this research facility is unique in orthopaedic and sports performance medicine and contributes to the development of worldwide rehabilitation protocols for elite and recreational athletes.

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To further strengthen our in-house expertise we are looking for young researchers (who may be eligible to undertake a PhD in the biomechanics or analysis of multi directional sporting movement, athletic groin pain, ACL or shoulder mechanics research) that have a great understanding of movement and the ability to use biomechanical data to support return to play decisions and improve rehabilitation. To ensure we find the best, we are launching a data challenge.

The Data: 50 ACL, 50 normative and 10 unknown CMJ force traces. In the txt files, the supplied frames 2 to 102 represent the concentric jumping phase, while the frames 106 to 206 represent the eccentric phase of the landing. The frame 104, 208 and 209 represent flight time, duration of jumping and duration of eccentric landing phase.

The Task: Find and describe features of ACL and uninjured subject in order to determine whether which of the 10 ‘unknown’ CMJ force traces are ACL and which are uninjured.

We ask everyone with an interest in human movement who has the skills to identify and explain differences within biomechanical data to apply - regardless of previous education.

The outcome of the challenge will be judged based on a two-page report that should include:

· methods/features used to drive your decision,
· explanation of the methods and their limitations
· classification of the 10 unlabeled GRF (ACL or normative)

Data can be downloaded using this link and reports should be submitted to Chris Richter by the 14 of November 2016 (UTC). The winner of the challenge will receive a honorarium grant of 1000 Euro

Respectfully,

Dr Chris Richter Head of Research and Development www.sportssurgeryclinic.com www.sscresearchfoundation.com

Dr Andy Franklyn-Miller Director of Research and Rehabilitation www.sportssurgeryclinic.com www.sscresearchfoundation.com

[Chris Richter]

Re: SSC Biomechanics Analytical Data Challenge

Many thanks to everyone that participated and submitted a manuscript to the SSC Biomechanics Analytical Data Challenge!

We were pleased at the quality and breadth of the submissions and it confirmed our belief that this is a great way for the clinic to both collaborate and also look for talented PhD candidates.

As stated in the rules for the challenge, the target audience for the prize award was for those eligible for PhD candidature and although we were delighted to receive submission from those post doctoral candidates, we will seek to collaborate directly.

We would like to congratulate Dr Morgan Sangeux (Murdoch Childrens Research Institute) for an outstanding report and a 100% accurate group prediction of the unlabeled ground reaction force curves. I would like to invite the BioMch-L community to read the report (attached) and hope that the future brings more analysis approaches like this one into our journals.

We will contact directly the non-postdoctoral winner for contact details to award the prize of 1000 Euro and hope to collaborate further.

Look out for our next data challenge.

Respectfully,

Dr Chris Richter Head of Research and Development www.sportssurgeryclinic.com www.sscresearchfoundation.com	Dr Andy Franklyn-Miller Director of Research and Rehabilitation www.sportssurgeryclinic.com www.sscresearchfoundation.com

[Morgan Sangeux]

Re: SSC Biomechanics Analytical Data Challenge

Thanks Chris,
I had a lot of fun working on this, despite that the primary intention of the challenge was to recruit a PhD student, and I had absolutely no intention to embark in another PhD. I guess the fact I had an ACL injury (and subsequent reconstruction) 2 years ago might have contributed to my interest in the challenge. I am almost certain I am going to collect countermovement jump force plate data on myself in our gait lab at some point!
The other thing I liked was this challenge offered a standalone exercise (with a solution) to test the methods I am working on for other, more complex projects. It also provided the opportunity to think about the relevant clinical information gained from a particular test (countermovement jump) and how this test may be used to inform clinical decisions.
This also reminded me of the teach-in laboratory series I found in the clinicalgaitanalysis.com website (although these were biomechanics, rather than data science, exercises). I have been amazed by the quality of the discussions that originated from these exercises, and the better understanding I got from reading them. I have also found many papers from the late 90’s that seemed to spin off these discussions. This kind of initiatives seemed to have disappeared unfortunately, or maybe I am not aware of the new teach-in?
Cheers,

[Chris Richter]

Re: SSC Biomechanics Analytical Data Challenge

Due to the number of requests over the last few days anyone who is interested in playing with the data can find an zip file attached to this reply, while the correct classification of the unlabeled subjects can be found in Morgans report.

Again many thanks for all the interest and submissions!

Chris