A pioneering ACL surgery technique that regrows a patient's own ligament. Wearable sensors that track muscle oxygen and guide physical therapy in real time. Wireless surgical cameras. Stem cell injections that help knees heal from the inside out.
Welcome to the future of sports medicine — and the present.
Over the past year, the UH Haslam Sports Innovation Center has partnered with several Cleveland-based companies to advance wearable tech, surgical tools, and biologics — technologies that are extending athletic careers, reducing injuries and helping athletes of all ages get back on the field faster.
“We have a very unique model that doesn’t exist in many places in the country,” said Dr. James Voos, the Cleveland Browns’ head physician and executive director of the center. “We want to utilize all the rigor of science and science that comes with being in an academic medical center, but to do so in a very nimble way, where we’re responding to our patients and what our patients need in a very rapid way.
“We utilize the term at our institution, ‘Taking care of athletes from pee-wee to pro.’ And we’re truly walking the walk, bringing all those things we use at the pro level down to our youth athletes.”
Voos will highlight some of those innovations when he speaks at the second annual SportsLand HealthTech event, taking place Thursday, June 26, at Huntington Bank Field. The event gathers team physicians, tech executives and pro athletes to explore how data, health technology, and science are transforming the sports world.
“SportsLand is the culmination of (what’s happening),” Voos said. “It’s a mix of the best things that Cleveland has to offer. It’s health care. It’s innovation. It’s sports. And it’s been really cool to tie all these together and it’s about trying to make a difference in our community.
“I feel like we’re checking each of the boxes to really be valuable contributors to Northeast Ohio. It’s economic development. It’s keeping our athletes safe. And it’s having great hospitals where we keep the research going.”
Here’s a look at some of the breakthrough technology being developed at the UH Haslam Sports Innovation Center.
Wearable technology
Much of Voos’ work has centered on ACL surgery and recovery. With athletes specializing earlier and training year-round, ACL tears are happening at younger ages, especially among females.
“Ultimately, they’re asking, ‘What do I do to get back as safely as possible?’” Voos said. “Kids want to get college scholarships and have aspirations to play at the pro level — or maybe they just really enjoy playing. One part of that process is to do really good novel surgery. But after the surgery, we want to help them determine when it is safe to get back to play.”
To help with that, the center has used muscle oxygen and nitric oxide sensors on more than 100 high school and college athletes, giving doctors a look at what’s happening inside the body, not just what they can see or what athletes say they feel.
“This is the first time we’ve ever acquired internal data,” Voos said. “It helps show an athlete, ‘OK, mentally you’re ready to go, but let’s make sure your body is actually ready to go.’
Another locally developed device, created by Cuyahoga Falls-based UGen Health, allows patients to complete prescribed exercises at home with real-time feedback — a key benefit when insurance limitations or scheduling challenges make in-person visits difficult.
“So if you're moving your arm and you're cheating and hiking your shoulder, the sensor picks that up and it actually gives you feedback,” Voos said. “It can talk to you or the device vibrates to make sure, ‘OK, I've got to keep my arm down.’
“It has really become a surrogate for our physical therapists. It has not replaced it, but it's been a remarkable enhancement to where our athletes can do high-quality exercises at home that really amplifies their physical therapy visits.”
Next-gen surgical tools
Cleveland-based Lazurite has developed ArthroFree, a wireless surgical camera system that’s the first of its kind to receive FDA clearance for a wide range of endoscopic procedures, including arthroscopy. University Hospitals is the first provider in Ohio to adopt the technology.
“So if you're in the operating room now, you have to have everything hooked up to cords; everything's plugged in,” Voos said. “And when you think about the evolution of it, just like your phone used to be plugged into the wall and you're kind of restrained by how long of a cord you have to get around. A wireless camera gives you that freedom of movement. You're not plugged in. So it's been really nice to be part of that development.”
The center also uses a nanoscope developed by Florida-based Arthrex — a needle-sized camera designed for minimally invasive procedures in smaller joints like elbows and ankles. Its chip-based imaging provides clearer visuals and allows for smaller incisions, which is especially beneficial for younger athletes.
“It’s literally a poke-hole incision,” Voos said. “So it’s less bleeding and fewer incisions. It’s much less invasive.”
Collagen implants
Traditionally, ACL repairs require tissue harvested from the patellar or quadriceps tendon. But Cleveland startup Collamedix, developed through Case Western’s BioEnterprise accelerator, is taking a different approach. Its collagen-based implants use scaffolds to repair and reinforce the ACL without needing to reconstruct it using tissue from elsewhere.
UH is running lab studies with the technology as it moves toward FDA approval.
“One of my big goals as a sports medicine surgeon is, by the time my career is done, I want to be able to do the ACL surgery without having to borrow tissue," Voos said.
Stem cells
One of the Haslam Center’s boldest initiatives is a stem cell therapy for early arthritis developed in partnership with Case Western Reserve University and led by Stan Gerson, dean of its medical school. After two years of regulatory work, UH became the first institution in the U.S. to receive FDA approval to grow and multiply a patient’s own stem cells for this condition.
The process starts with doctors harvesting a patient’s stem cells, which are then grown in a lab over two weeks until they multiply into the millions. Once ready, the stem cells are injected into the knee. In a two-year study tracking 15 patients through clinical evaluations and MRIs, most showed noticeable improvement.
“They feel better, they’re exercising more and their MRIs have shown improvement of the inflammation and the damage in their knees,” Voos said. “We’re thrilled with this and we’re applying to the FDA for our next phase. That’s one of the projects we’re really, really excited about and has received a lot of attention, just because it’s such a regulated process.”
For Voos, these innovations are the product of a decade-long plan. It started with building a school athletic trainer program, followed by creating a facility tailored to youth athletes. The next step was recruiting top sports medicine specialists. Finally, the focus turned to advancing cutting-edge technology in areas like wearables, imaging and regenerative medicine.
“We’re really excited because it’s no longer theoretical,” Voos said. “It’s reality.”
Now, Voos is focused on sharing that progress with a broader audience and sees SportsLand as a key part of that effort.
“How do we continue this process and get enough data out there where it’s available to everyone?” he said. “That’s where we’re at now, which I think is a wonderful place to be. And I think it’s so great that it’s all happening here in Cleveland and it’s in different sectors. There’s rehab, there’s tissue engineering, and there are stem cells, and there are these cameras. So it’s, again, a remarkable place where a lot of these advancements were happening.
“I use the term modern academics. We’re trying to live that.”