One of my patients, a gold medalist wrestler in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, failed to continue his practice because of a progressive leg pain, a condition called “chronic exertional compartment syndrome” of the leg. The standard method for diagnosing this condition involved an invasive procedure for measuring the pressure within the compartments of the affected leg, a high-risk and challenging intervention for patients. That experience inspired me to investigate a potential noninvasive, reliable and straightforward method to monitor leg compartments of patients, particularly athletes who suffer from chronic exertional compartment syndrome. That was the starting point of my journey from sports medicine practice to clinical biophotonics engineering. In this talk, I will walk you through this journey and beyond that!

Dr. Babak Shadgan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Orthopedics and an Associate faculty member in the School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of British Columbia. He is directing the Clinical Biophotonics Laboratory at the International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries. Dr. Shadgan’s research interest is focused on design and development of novel wearable and implantable biosensors and their applications in health and diseases.