Methods & systems for rehabilitating injured operators

Abstract

The disclosed medical exercise, injury prevention, and medical rehabilitation systems and methods evaluate injured and non-injured operators, medically, mentally, and occupationally. The operators are highly-trained military or law enforcement personnel that have specific tactical requirements, among other physical demands, to perform their jobs properly. The occupational evaluation of the injured or non-injured operator relates to their occupational requirements and how their injuries and physical capacity capabilities affect their abilities to perform the tactical requirements of their jobs. The rehabilitation and injury prevention programs can be customized to various needs of the units, branches, or other groups to which the injured operators belong. Further, the injuries of one or more operators can be tracked and data related to operators suffering similar injuries can be used to help treat each operator and to help give commanders of the injured operators more injury data on which to base decisions about the operator and the unit or other group of operators.

1 . An operator rehabilitation system, comprising:
 spine evaluation and strengthening equipment having a sensor that is structured to be attached to an operator and is configured to:
 measure evaluation input from the operator in one or more specific aspects of a baseline physical condition of the operator; 
 quantify evaluation data for the one or more specific aspects of the baseline physical condition of the operator, the quantified evaluation data including one or both of range of motion and strength and endurance in one or more positions; 
 generate evaluation output based on one or both of the measured evaluation input and the quantified evaluation data; 
   a display that is configured to display the output and to generate a user prompt to input full-spine medical evaluation data about the operator and tactical evaluation about the operator;   processing circuitry electrically coupled to the sensor of the spine evaluation and strengthening equipment, the processing circuitry configured to:
 receive the evaluation output from the sensor; 
 generate an instruction to display the prompt to the user on the display to input the full-spine medical evaluation data and the tactical evaluation about the operator; 
 create a custom injury prevention program for the operator based on the received evaluation output, the received full-spine medical evaluation data about the operator, and the tactical medical evaluation about the operator, the custom injury prevention program including one or more of a pre-flight physical training, stretching program, strengthening program and conditioning program. 
   
     
     
         2 . The operator rehabilitation system of  claim 1 , wherein the operator is a pilot and the baseline physical condition is based on one or more selected from multiple of common pilot spine injuries. 
     
     
         3 . The operator rehabilitation system of  claim 1 , wherein the sensor is further configured to:
 measure post-injury spine evaluation input from the operator in one or more specific aspects of a post-injury physical condition of the operator;   quantify post-injury spine evaluation data for the one or more specific aspects of the post-injury spine physical condition of the operator, the post-injury evaluation data including one, multiple, or any combination of: range of motion and strength and endurance in one or more positions; and   generate post-injury spine evaluation output that includes one or both of the quantified post-injury evaluation input and the quantified post-injury spine evaluation data.   
     
     
         4 . The operator rehabilitation system of  claim 3 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to receive the post-injury evaluation output and to create a customized post-injury spine plan of care based at least in part on one of or any combination of the full-spine medical evaluation data, the tactical evaluation, and the post-injury spine evaluation output. 
     
     
         5 . The operator rehabilitation system of  claim 3 , wherein the post-injury spine evaluation input from the operator includes one or both of a symptomatic injury and an asymptomatic anatomical spine injury. 
     
     
         6 . The operator rehabilitation system of  claim 3 , wherein the post-injury spine evaluation input from the operator includes input about a single injury or multiple injuries. 
     
     
         7 . The operator rehabilitation system of  claim 1 , wherein the spine evaluation and strengthening equipment is configured to:
 measure injury spine evaluation data of the operator in one or more specific aspects of a post-injury physical condition spine injury of the operator;   quantify spine injury evaluation data for the one or more specific aspects of the post-injury physical condition of the operator including one or more of: range of motion and strength and endurance in one or more positions; and   generate spine injury evaluation output that includes one or both of the measured spine injury evaluation data and the quantified injury spine evaluation data.   
     
     
         8 . The operator rehabilitation system of  claim 7 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to compare the injury evaluation data and the evaluation output. 
     
     
         9 . The operator rehabilitation system of  claim 8 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to generate a post-injury plan of care based at least in part on the comparison of the spine injury evaluation data and the evaluation output. 
     
     
         10 . The operator rehabilitation system of  claim 1 , wherein the full-spine medical evaluation data and tactical evaluation are flight-duty specific evaluations. 
     
     
         11 . The operator rehabilitation system of  claim 10 , wherein the flight-duty specific evaluations are customized to at least one of the operator or the baseline physical condition of the operator. 
     
     
         12 . The operator rehabilitation system of  claim 1 , wherein the custom injury prevention program for the operator includes a short program and a long program, each of which are based at least in part on an available pre-flight period of time of the operator. 
     
     
         13 . The operator rehabilitation system of  claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to generate an instruction to display the prompt to the user on the display to input user monitoring feedback based at least in part on a performance of the operator in the custom injury prevention program. 
     
     
         14 . The operator rehabilitation system of  claim 11 , wherein the performance of the operator in the custom injury prevention program includes an evaluation of a performance quality of the operator performance of the custom injury prevention program of the operator. 
     
     
         15 . The operator rehabilitation system of  claim 11 , wherein the performance of the operator in the custom injury prevention program includes one or both of a post-injury medical evaluation data and a post-injury tactical evaluation. 
     
     
         16 . The operator rehabilitation system of  claim 11 , wherein the performance of the operator in the custom injury prevention program includes an operator progress of the custom injury prevention program. 
     
     
         17 . A pilot rehabilitation system, comprising:
 spine evaluation and strengthening equipment having at least one sensor that is structured to assess one or more specific aspects of a physical condition of tactical pilot and is configured to:
 measure a baseline evaluation input of the pilot in the one or more specific aspects of the physical condition of the pilot; 
 quantify baseline evaluation data for the one or more specific aspects of the physical condition of the pilot; and 
 generate a baseline evaluation output that includes one or both of the measured baseline evaluation input and the quantified baseline evaluation data; 
   a display that is configured to display the baseline evaluation output and to generate a user prompt to input full-spine medical evaluation data of the pilot and tactical baseline evaluation of the pilot; and   processing circuitry electrically coupled to the sensor of the spine evaluation and strengthening equipment, the processing circuitry configured to:
 receive the baseline evaluation output from the sensor; 
 generate an instruction to display the prompt to the user on the display to input the full-spine medical evaluation data of the pilot and the tactical evaluation about the pilot; 
 create a tactical pilot specific injury prevention program for the pilot based at least in part on the baseline evaluation output, the received full-spine medical evaluation data of the pilot, and the tactical evaluation about the pilot, the pilot specific injury prevention program including one or more of a pre-flight physical training program, stretching program, strengthening program and conditioning program for the pilot to perform; and 
 determine a follow-up time to re-evaluate the pilot using the spine evaluation and strengthening equipment, the re-evaluation of the pilot based on one or a combination of the baseline evaluation output, the pilot specific injury prevention program, and a spine injury event. 
   
     
     
         18 . The pilot rehabilitation system of  claim 17 , wherein the follow-up time to re-evaluate the pilot is determined according to a pilot maintenance schedule customized to the pilot's baseline evaluation output and subsequent spine specific medical evaluation data and tactical evaluation data about the pilot. 
     
     
         19 . The pilot rehabilitation system of  claim 17 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to determine multiple follow-up times to re-evaluate the pilot, the multiple follow-up times each vary depending on the pilot's baseline evaluation output compared to subsequent medical evaluation data and tactical evaluation data about the pilot. 
     
     
         20 . The pilot rehabilitation system of  claim 19 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to generate re-evaluation data about the pilot for each of the multiple follow-up times the pilot is re-evaluated and to determine a possibility of a pilot spine injury based at least in part on the baseline evaluation output and the generated re-evaluation data for each of the multiple follow-up times the pilot is re-evaluated. 
     
     
         21 . The pilot rehabilitation system of  claim 20 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to send a prompt to the display to prompt a user for input to confirm the pilot spine injury and, if the pilot spine injury is confirmed, to generate an injury rehabilitation plan of care customized to the pilot injury, the baseline evaluation data, the re-evaluation data, the full-spine medical evaluation of the pilot, and the tactical evaluation of the pilot. 
     
     
         22 . The pilot rehabilitation system of  claim 15 , wherein pilot specific spine injury prevention program for the pilot is adjusted based on each re-evaluation data received about the pilot.