NFL games have begun, and fans and teams are hopeful that the novel coronavirus pandemic won’t derail the football season as it has done to other professional sports. While great measures are being taken to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 between current players, teams, and staff, a new venture has been formed to look out for the health and wellness of former players. The NFL Alumni Health Lab is led by sports scientist Dr. Chuck Morris, a Ph.D. and the founder of a performance training company for athletes. This week, Dr. Morris announced a study to digitally monitor the vital signs of NFL Alumni Association (NFLA) members. The research will involve a partnership between his company Fulcrum Performance, the NFLA, and an Israeli technology firm.
David Maman is the Co-founder and CEO of Tel Aviv-based Binah.ai, which provides AI-powered health and wellness video monitoring tools. “High-stress levels are an everyday challenge of life, and the current pandemic has only exacerbated the issue,” Maman says. His company’s vision is to allow for basic and universally accessible health and wellness services for everyone, everywhere. Binhai.ai will supply the technology to NFL Alumni that can “extract mental stress and vitals from a person’s face, with medical-grade accuracy, using only the video camera of virtually any mobile device, smartphone or tablet.” An NFLA member can then monitor their vitals, including respiration rate, heart rate variability, oxygen saturation, and stress levels. That information will then be provided to Fulcrum Performance as data for the study. Binhai.ai says the information will be stored in the MyHealthLab app, that the technology works on any skin tone, age, or gender and does not require attachments such as finger clips or watches.
“The thought of capturing these data points across states, time zones, and demographics used to appear impossible, but today, we have the technology to make it happen,” Dr. Morris says. Monitoring these vitals remotely is of real value because NFL Alumni live across the country. “The information that the Fulcrum Stress Study will capture and track is arguably some of the most important data in measuring individual wellness, but historically difficult to capture effectively and consistently.”
Dr. Morris’ wants to both monitor and assist former players to remain healthy in their post-football careers, particularly during COVID-19. “Over 65 percent of our heroes that we all grew up on, that supported us in different parts of our lives through a screen, now we can support,” Morris told CBS Sports. “So the concept became, how do we get alongside it and take this technology that otherwise wouldn’t be available to them and help assess where they are physically, mentally and emotionally — and not just measure — but then actually coach them to improve?”
Morris noted to CBS that he hopes that this research may facilitate a further partnership to monitor the vitals of current NFL players. Phase 1 of the current study with the NFLA will open for enrollment starting Oct. 1, and all alumni members are welcome to participate. A Phase 2 study that will include a larger number of participants will begin after the Phase 1 research ends in November.
In addition to the research it is doing to determine the mental stress that its members are experiencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the current social climate, the NFLA is also enabling members who do not currently have health insurance to receive over 500 medical tests and lab work at Labcorp for little or no cost. The Alumni Association announced earlier this year that members can receive a 50% discount on COVID-19 antibody testing. The NFLA notes that these wellness perks are available not only to former NFL players, but also coaches, executives, spouses, cheerleaders, and associate members.