Project Description: 

We are Team TJMaxx, and we looked at the repeated occurrence of ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) injuries in baseball players resulting in Tommy John surgery. Tommy John surgeries replace your UCL with a ligament graft and on average have a recovery time of 18-24 months. 13% of all current starting pitchers in the MLB have undergone tommy john surgery, it is a growing problem with more surgeries every year. It has the highest impact on younger players ages 15-19 year olds account for 57% of all Tommy John surgeries. Part of the reason being that a lot of younger athletes are throwing harder than we have seen in the past and they are playing baseball year round and not giving their arms time to rest, resulting in valgus overload or throwers arm. This causes swelling, inflammation and bone spurs to form in the elbow. If they keep continuing to throw they will end up tearing/rupturing their UCL’s. A UCL tear isn’t an instantaneous event, the UCL is damaged over time. Our team looked at the current devices on the market that monitor the UCL and we found none that directly measured the strain put on a throwers arm. It is well known that the UCL can withstand ~35 N*M of force so we created a device that uses an accelerometer to measure the torque generated by the arm where the UCL attaches to ulna so that users can monitor the amount torque they are generating in the area and see if it is below the 35 N*M threshold.