Stanford Sports Medicine, Pulsed Energy Tech announce clinical trial for healing of fractures

Palo Alto, Calif. – A clinical trial will begin this July at Stanford Sports Medicine, designed to illustrate the acceleration of healing of tibia fractures when PEMF technology is administered.

Andy Choi, DTP, SCS, CSCS, commented, “We are looking to investigate the efficacy of high-power PEMF therapy in the treatment of lower extremity bone stress injuries. There has been no study to date on the utility of PEMF in the treatment of bone stress fractures and stress reactions. Our study will be a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized controlled on the efficacy of PEMF therapy in combination with the usual care and treatment of bone stress injuries in Division 1 collegiate student-athletes. The primary endpoint for the study will be time to return for full-time sport participation, with secondary outcomes of pain progression and time to ground running.”

The plan is to collect data for the entire school year as to maximize both the participants, treatments given while ensuring all study participants complete the treatment protocol from start to finish. The IRB will be run through Stanford University and the trial headed by Calvin Hwang, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor, Dept. of Orthopedic Surgery.     

Stanford has 36 varsity sports teams, which include about 900 student-athletes. All student-athletes over the next academic school year, with non-surgical bone stress reactions or fractures below the knee on MRI as a result of over-use injuries, will be screened for inclusion in the study.

“Being able to clinically prove that this technology can accelerate the healing of a fracture by offering the general public a non-invasive solution is profound,” offered Josh Silver, president of Pulsed Energy Technologies.