Low Cost Head Impact Alert System for Helmeted Sports

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant The Center for Disease Control CDC estimates the yearly incidence of mild Traumatic Brain Injury mTBI at approximately million cases in the United States alone Approximately of these injuries occur in football The Principal Objective of this NIH Phase IIb SBIR project is to expand the utility of the current and now commercially available InSite impact alert monitoring system developed in Phase I Phase II to integrate long term player specific head impact exposure tracking for identifying both at risk impacts i e on field alerting and high risk behavior i e poor tackling technique Brain injur is difficult to andquot seeandquot particularly on the field We have successfully developed a sideline tool that can identify atypical impacts or series of impacts in the field that can be used to trigger management of concussion on the sideline What is currently lacking is the ability to identify high risk behavior that may eventually lead to concussion The proposed technology and innovation will reduce head impact exposures at all playing levels resulting in lower concussion risk

PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE The Center for Disease Control CDC estimates the yearly incidence of mild Traumatic Brain Injury mTBI at approximately million cases in the United States alone Approximately of these injuries occur in football mTBI is a major source of lost
player time Head injuries accounted for of all football injuries to boys and of all soccer injuries to both boys and girls in a large study of high school sports injuries Approximately mTBI cases occur annually among high school varsity athletes with football accounting for about of cases Concussions in hockey affect of the athletes and make up of all injuries concussions occur per year in a football team of players and per year from a hockey team with players mTBI has been recognized as a major public health issue and much emphasis has been put on proper treatment and prevention The NIH and CDC have declared that reducing the incidence severity and post injury symptomology of mTBI is a national research priority Concussions particularly when repeated threaten the long term health of the athlete The health care costs associated with mTBI in sports are estimated to be in the hundreds of millions annually