Doctors Will Create New Baseball App to Reduce the Frequency of Tommy John Surgeries

Due to the recent epidemic of UCL injuries among Major League Baseball (MLB) pitchers, Dr. James Andrews and Dr. Kevin Wilk are working to develop an iOS application to educate people on how to prevent throwing injuries.

Dr. James Andrews is the go-to surgeon for professional athletes who suffer from ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) injuries as well as anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries. He performs Tommy John surgery on those who suffer UCL tears, which is a ligament in the medial elbow that is essential in one's throwing motion. When it tears, the Tommy John procedure replaces the torn UCL with a tendon from elsewhere in the body.

In recent years, especially this 2014 season, there have been far too many UCL injuries occurring in pitchers. Young pitchers across the MLB including Matt Moore of the Tampa Bay Rays, Jose Fernandez of the Miami Marlins, Patrick Corbin of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and Ivan Nova of the New York Yankees underwent the procedure already this year. The list goes on, which you can view here.

Dr. Andrews' and Dr. Wilks' iOS app, "Throw Like a Pro," will be released in the coming weeks in order to help provide a way to prevent these injuries. One section of the app will give pitchers recommendations from the American Sports Medicine Institute in regards to their mechanics and pitching routine. It will also include a pitch counter and rest calculator as well as a pregame preparation guide and pregame warm-up routine with video instruction of exercises.

"Hopefully this will help them to play at peak performance without injury so they can pursue their baseball aspirations in a healthy manner," Wilk said in this ESPN news article.

"I'm really excited," Andrews added. "For the first time, kids and parents everywhere will have access to the information and routines that we hope will put an end to this epidemic."

The app's goal is to reduce injuries while also improving a pitcher's performance. Its use is intended for players, parents, coaches, trainers, etc. to help cope with the current injury woes.