By Nicholas Talbot
Stan Kotara stood in the middle of the room on one leg, holding his smartphone to his chest.
The concussion management director at Lubbock Sports Medicine was demonstrating the future of concussion testing. And for the most part, it seems alarmingly simple — the smart phone does most of the work as it measures a players’ balance.
But, there is far more to concussion testing than most people realize.
The tests that athletes go through to be able to play again are more than reciting the alphabet backward or asking the time, date and location of the game.
It has evolved into a scientific process. Currently, the most accepted form of testing across the NCAA and the University Interscholastic League is ImPACT testing.
“(ImPACT testing) does a couple of things for us. It helps us kind of confirm our suspicions that yes, a particular student athlete has had a concussion and it helps us track their recovery and then maybe as important as anything, it helps us determine when it’s safe for that student athlete to return to the field of play,” said Kotara, a certified ImPACT consultant.
Research cited by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons suggests that more than a third of college football players have had one concussion and 20 percent have had more than one.
The smartphone Kotara was holding in his hands was a technology that is currently under development. With the smart phone trainers are going to be able to measure a player’s balance and coordination after suffering from a possible concussive hit on the football field.
“That is kind of new technology,” Kotara said. “So, we haven’t really quite implemented it just yet, but we are going to and that is measuring, a different area of our brain function. ... The ImPACT test measures our neurocognitive abilities, our attention to detail, our reaction time, your concentration ability, our working memory. This is more of the motor domain of our brain functions so that kind of incorporates our whole body.”
According to Kotara, it has also been proven that younger athletes are more susceptible to suffering from these types of injuries.
“Younger kids, their symptoms of a concussion seem to linger on several more days than say a college player or certainly at the professional level,” he said. “Younger kids recover slower, we know that now.”
Still Kotara said he would not limit or ever recommend for parents to not let their children play sports.
“Despite all of our latest evidence that we have now — and we’ve learned more about this injury in the last 10 to 12 years than the 50 years before that — There’s more about this injury that we don’t know, still,” Kotara said.
There have been other technologies developed to help track and detect concussions and concussion-like symptoms, including devices in helmets and mouth guards that transmit signals back to a team’s training staff and coaches.
When a player gets hit the mouth guard or helmet sends a signal to a wireless receiver on the sideline in real-time so a trainer can be alerted by their laptop or smartphone.
However, Kotara said this has done little to curb the frequency of concussions. He believes legislation, combined with technology and knowledge will instead help diagnose and treat concussions. Part of that legislation requirement in the state of Texas is that every two years high school coaches must have documented training in the recognition of the signs and symptoms of a concussion.
“Our treatment policies that are in place, that is required now by the state and it’s working,” Kotara said. “We’ve had several examples of some local high school coaches that have suspected something’s happened and … a kid’s pulled out and sure enough they’ve had a concussion.
“So, it’s working.”
By Nicholas Talbot
Stan Kotara stood in the middle of the room on one leg, holding his smartphone to his chest.
The concussion management director at Lubbock Sports Medicine was demonstrating the future of concussion testing. And for the most part, it seems alarmingly simple — the smart phone does most of the work as it measures a players’ balance.
But, there is far more to concussion testing than most people realize.
The tests that athletes go through to be able to play again are more than reciting the alphabet backward or asking the time, date and location of the game.
It has evolved into a scientific process. Currently, the most accepted form of testing across the NCAA and the University Interscholastic League is ImPACT testing.
“(ImPACT testing) does a couple of things for us. It helps us kind of confirm our suspicions that yes, a particular student athlete has had a concussion and it helps us track their recovery and then maybe as important as anything, it helps us determine when it’s safe for that student athlete to return to the field of play,” said Kotara, a certified ImPACT consultant.
Research cited by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons suggests that more than a third of college football players have had one concussion and 20 percent have had more than one.
The smartphone Kotara was holding in his hands was a technology that is currently under development. With the smart phone trainers are going to be able to measure a player’s balance and coordination after suffering from a possible concussive hit on the football field.
“That is kind of new technology,” Kotara said. “So, we haven’t really quite implemented it just yet, but we are going to and that is measuring, a different area of our brain function. ... The ImPACT test measures our neurocognitive abilities, our attention to detail, our reaction time, your concentration ability, our working memory. This is more of the motor domain of our brain functions so that kind of incorporates our whole body.”
According to Kotara, it has also been proven that younger athletes are more susceptible to suffering from these types of injuries.
“Younger kids, their symptoms of a concussion seem to linger on several more days than say a college player or certainly at the professional level,” he said. “Younger kids recover slower, we know that now.”
Still Kotara said he would not limit or ever recommend for parents to not let their children play sports.
“Despite all of our latest evidence that we have now — and we’ve learned more about this injury in the last 10 to 12 years than the 50 years before that — There’s more about this injury that we don’t know, still,” Kotara said.
There have been other technologies developed to help track and detect concussions and concussion-like symptoms, including devices in helmets and mouth guards that transmit signals back to a team’s training staff and coaches.
When a player gets hit the mouth guard or helmet sends a signal to a wireless receiver on the sideline in real-time so a trainer can be alerted by their laptop or smartphone.
However, Kotara said this has done little to curb the frequency of concussions. He believes legislation, combined with technology and knowledge will instead help diagnose and treat concussions. Part of that legislation requirement in the state of Texas is that every two years high school coaches must have documented training in the recognition of the signs and symptoms of a concussion.
“Our treatment policies that are in place, that is required now by the state and it’s working,” Kotara said. “We’ve had several examples of some local high school coaches that have suspected something’s happened and … a kid’s pulled out and sure enough they’ve had a concussion.
“So, it’s working.”
The concussion management director at Lubbock Sports Medicine was demonstrating the future of concussion testing. And for the most part, it seems alarmingly simple — the smart phone does most of the work as it measures a players’ balance.
But, there is far more to concussion testing than most people realize.
The tests that athletes go through to be able to play again are more than reciting the alphabet backward or asking the time, date and location of the game.
It has evolved into a scientific process. Currently, the most accepted form of testing across the NCAA and the University Interscholastic League is ImPACT testing.
“(ImPACT testing) does a couple of things for us. It helps us kind of confirm our suspicions that yes, a particular student athlete has had a concussion and it helps us track their recovery and then maybe as important as anything, it helps us determine when it’s safe for that student athlete to return to the field of play,” said Kotara, a certified ImPACT consultant.
Research cited by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons suggests that more than a third of college football players have had one concussion and 20 percent have had more than one.
The smartphone Kotara was holding in his hands was a technology that is currently under development. With the smart phone trainers are going to be able to measure a player’s balance and coordination after suffering from a possible concussive hit on the football field.
“That is kind of new technology,” Kotara said. “So, we haven’t really quite implemented it just yet, but we are going to and that is measuring, a different area of our brain function. ... The ImPACT test measures our neurocognitive abilities, our attention to detail, our reaction time, your concentration ability, our working memory. This is more of the motor domain of our brain functions so that kind of incorporates our whole body.”
According to Kotara, it has also been proven that younger athletes are more susceptible to suffering from these types of injuries.
“Younger kids, their symptoms of a concussion seem to linger on several more days than say a college player or certainly at the professional level,” he said. “Younger kids recover slower, we know that now.”
Still Kotara said he would not limit or ever recommend for parents to not let their children play sports.
“Despite all of our latest evidence that we have now — and we’ve learned more about this injury in the last 10 to 12 years than the 50 years before that — There’s more about this injury that we don’t know, still,” Kotara said.
There have been other technologies developed to help track and detect concussions and concussion-like symptoms, including devices in helmets and mouth guards that transmit signals back to a team’s training staff and coaches.
When a player gets hit the mouth guard or helmet sends a signal to a wireless receiver on the sideline in real-time so a trainer can be alerted by their laptop or smartphone.
However, Kotara said this has done little to curb the frequency of concussions. He believes legislation, combined with technology and knowledge will instead help diagnose and treat concussions. Part of that legislation requirement in the state of Texas is that every two years high school coaches must have documented training in the recognition of the signs and symptoms of a concussion.
“Our treatment policies that are in place, that is required now by the state and it’s working,” Kotara said. “We’ve had several examples of some local high school coaches that have suspected something’s happened and … a kid’s pulled out and sure enough they’ve had a concussion.
“So, it’s working.”
Lubbock Sports Medicine
Dr. Kevin Crawford, MD
4110 22nd Place Lubbock, TX 79409
(806) 792-4329
Dr. Kevin Crawford, MD
4110 22nd Place Lubbock, TX 79409
4110 22nd Place Lubbock, TX 79409
(806) 792-4329
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