KPSOM student Andrew Schmidt was honored with the Magnum Cum Laude Merit Award during The International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) Conference for his team’s research focused on the relationship between patellar tendinopathy (a condition also known as jumper’s knee) and patella bone shape. The conference was held in Singapore at the Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre May 4 through 9, and the award is given to trainee members whose abstracts score in the top 15 percent within a major subject review category.
Over the summer, Schmidt conducted this research—which was sponsored by the National Basketball Association—in collaboration with Stanford University. Jumper’s knee is a critical issue for basketball players, as approximately one-third of basketball athletes experience symptoms such as pain and swelling, and in the long term they retire from the sport earlier and face higher rates of osteoarthritis. Despite its prevalence, jumper’s knee remains a difficult injury to treat, which largely prompted the team’s research.