Vision testing for concussion

Dr Philip Boughton at the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Engineering & Information is working with the team to develop a suite of technologies, including wearable biosensors, to better detect and assess traumatic brain injuries. “We’re trying to build technology that can track and relay real-time data on the acceleration, deceleration and rotation of players’ heads and necks. We want these biosensors to indicate not only concussive single impacts but also tell us when several smaller impacts could add up to a concussion,” he said in a Sydney University news article. “At the moment, we are in the prototype stage, however the plan is to implant this technology into a mouthguard. The hope is when a force that is likely to result in a concussion or brain injury is detected, the mouthguard will change colour or vibrate, alerting the player, training staff and referee to the injury.”

Dr Cohen is calling the new device a ‘concussionometer’. “(Currently) it’s a portable headset using clinically validated, patented technology to measure the brain’s electrical activity. The test takes two minutes to tell us when a player is concussed and has to leave the field and when they are safe to return to playing, the results are recorded on a smartphone and stored online.”

New Zealand’s involvement

After three years working as the chief medical officer with the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service, when he treated hundreds of trauma and medical cases, Dr Cohen founded Necksafe, and its concussion programme Headsafe, dedicated to the elimination of preventable head and neck injuries through advocacy, awareness, education, and research. Headsafe is not only involved in the Sydney University study, but also with a global rugby player health research project together with researchers and sports organisations in New Zealand.

This international, ground-breaking research is looking at the long-term effects of concussion on retired rugby players pulling together studies from Auckland University of Technology (AUT), the UK, Canada and Australia. The Kiwi study, led by AUT Professor Patria Hume, found rugby players who’d experienced one or more concussions had some cognitive limitations compared with those players with no history of concussion.

Concussion is a common traumatic brain injury that can have lifelong effects. Globally there are 10 million concussions every year and five million of these are children and adolescents. According to the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) $75 million was spent on concussion in New Zealand in the last three years.

"The long-term effects of participation in sport need to be understood and acknowledged in order for us to care for players today and in the future,” said Dr Cohen.