Ira Töyrylä, a Bachelor of Medicine, is currently conducting research on the use of thermal imaging to monitor athletes’ training loads. The research is being conducted in collaboration with the Ilves football team and supervised by Nikke Partio, MD, PhD, a specialist in orthopaedics and traumatology at Mehiläinen.
Töyrylä uses a Thermidas’s IRT-384 Tablet to capture and analyse the athletes’ thermal images.
The primary objective of the research is to evaluate the suitability and benefits of thermal imaging as a tool for monitoring the load on the musculoskeletal system during soccer training. Thermal imaging offers sports medicine a promising, non-invasive method for observing changes in tissue surface temperature, which can help prevent injuries.
The study will provide new insights into how training load is reflected in athletes’ thermal images and whether the method can be used to assess load, recovery, and stress-related changes.
The specific objectives of the study are:
- To determine whether thermal imaging can identify early asymmetries or hot spots related to stress on the musculoskeletal system of soccer players.
- To evaluate the connection between thermal imaging findings and self-reported health status during the training season.
- To investigate whether temperature changes precede the onset of reported musculoskeletal problems or injuries.