VALD Applied Research Initiative recipient announcement

Thank you to the universities, private practices, sporting organisations and government organisations all over the world who took the time to apply for the VALD Applied Research Initiative (VARI). We were overwhelmed by the tremendous response from all 207 groups of applicants and would love to be able to support every project.

We were particularly impressed by the number of applications that proposed collaborations between universities and clinics. To us, this demonstrates the commitment of universities to apply research in the real world. It also demonstrates the high number of researchers who have translated their skills from academia into helping everyday people. Shortlisting 207 applications was an especially rewarding process, as we were curious to understand how researchers wanted to apply our technology towards tackling challenging problems. Applications spanned a range of sport, health and military domains, with the most common theme being a desire to improve rehabilitation outcomes. The shortlist of the eventual recipients was extremely difficult to finalise, and our research team debated the final outcomes for many hours. We increased the total funding amount to $AU250,000 so we could fund all of the projects. We are excited to announce our VARI recipients below:

• Dr Paul Read, Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health / University College London – Integration of objective assessment in the orthopaedic pathway of a National Health System hospital to monitor patient outcomes and help address the chronic burden of musculoskeletal injury and diseases through precision healthcare.
• Dr Tim Henwood, Southern Cross Care (SA, NT & VIC) inc. – Evidence to practise: Integrating VALD technology into aged care clinical practice.
• Dr Hayley Legg, Craven SPORT services – Lower limb asymmetry during functional tasks in relation to measures of strength and pain in older adults with hip and knee osteoarthritis.
• Dr Alexandra F. DeJong Lempke, ATC, Boston Children’s Hospital – Monitoring Rehabilitation Recovery Following Injury: Augmenting Clinical Practice with Automated Human Performance Technology.
• Michael Heynen, Sportsmed SA – Mapping the rehabilitation journey: developing a database of rehabilitation progress using multiple data sources.

VARI round one is just the beginning! We are always interested in exploring collaborative opportunities, so please keep an eye on our website and socials for future initiatives, or reach out to our team directly.