Mobile Apps Innovate Concussion Detection for HS Football Team

The Sioux Falls Roosevelt High School football team was the first to test out a new concussion detection technology with athletic trainer, Scott Roggenbuck.

Roosevelt HS is one of many schools partnered with Sanford Health. This partnership equips them with an app for mobile phones so athletic trainers can create baseline tests with athletes. Later, they’ll use the baseline test if a student-athlete is thought to have a head injury. The comparison between the baseline test and any further tests can tell Roggenbuck if a student is suffering from a concussion or when they are ready to return to gameplay.

This style of comparison testing isn’t new at the high school level, but the ease and technology advancements of completing the test on a cell phone is a recent innovation.

“Everybody is different, it is not a graded test. It is a measure of your normal brain function,” Roggenbuck explained to Dakota News Now.

In a video taken by Dakota News Now, viewers can see student-athletes lined up around the gym, holding their phones while they complete physical and mental tests. Some stand on one foot, others identify the differences between two lines. For physical tests, students hold the phone to their chest so it can detect changes in balance or heart rhythm.

“Being able to put together data to have some type of a baseline so the kids know when they’re healthy and so we know when they’re healthy and so we are never putting the athlete at risk. The health of the athlete is of greatest importance to us as coaches,” said Jason Stahlberg, Sioux Falls Roosevelt High School head football coach.

When it comes to concussion protocol, time is critical. Technology has come a long way over the years, as Roggenbuck explained, “10 or 15 years ago, you didn’t have the technology to do this type of stuff. Now, it is so much easier for us to determine if a kid is ready to take that next step.”