ESPN Analyst seeks to empower athletes with innovative eye-tracking technology
Palo Alto, CA — September 10, 2018 — Pioneering brain health analytics company, SyncThink, announces Steve Young will join the company as an advisor. Young will work closely with SyncThink to forge adoption of its FDA-cleared EYE-SYNC technology to, for the first time, enable individuals to work with their physicians and monitor their own brain performance.
“This is about empowerment,” Young states, “Athletes at all levels deserve an objective tool tomake informed decisions about the risks of playing their sport.”
Young played for fifteen years in the National Football League — his storied career, recently chronicled in his book “Behind the Spiral," was highlighted in San Francisco where he led the 49ers to three Super Bowl championships. A two-time NFL MVP and the 1994 Super Bowl MVP, Young retired in 1999 with a 96.8 career passer rating and was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 2005.
Earning a law degree from BYU while playing for the 49ers, Young made a successful transition to an off-field career, first with his Forever Young Foundation, and now as the Co-Founder andManaging Partner of HGGC — a mid-market private equity firm with $4B under management.
Young continues, “Just as when I was in the NFL twenty years ago, today’s process to evaluate players for head injuries remains wholly subjective. SyncThink’s sideline-ready solution will educate athletes, parents, coaches, teams and medical personnel with real-time, brain health analytics and make the sport safer.”
A cloud-based virtual reality platform, SyncThink’s proprietary technology assesses brain health in 60 seconds. Using the company’s VR headset to track eye movements, SyncThink can be used at the moment of injury to detect visual impairment, during training to track the pace of recovery, and proactively to monitor brain health.
“With SyncThink, athletes will have a strong defense — first, by using it for initial screenings, then by immediately deploying it to rule in or rule out an array of impairments. Athletes can also use SyncThink for a powerful offense — harnessing it to speed their recovery, proving their readiness for play, and reaching their optimal brain performance,” Young explains.
Young has partnered with Silicon Valley Sports Ventures to accelerate SyncThink which continues to expand its robust intellectual property portfolio of 12 granted patents for eye-tracking technology and brain health analytics.
“Having Steve join our team to support the work we’re doing is huge validation for us,” SyncThink CEO Laura Yecies said. “Steve’s a leader, both in sport and business, and we’re proud to partner with him to enhance player safety and optimize athletic performance. His expertise and commitment is invaluable.”
Early-adopters of SyncThink include Stanford Athletics, all member schools of the Pac 12 Conference, University of Georgia Athletics, University of Texas Athletics, and three-time NBA World Champion Golden State Warriors.
About SyncThink
SyncThink is on a mission to provide objective measurements for brain health and empower people to maximize their health and performance. SyncThink develops revolutionary eye-tracking technology and analytics, in a VR environment, that assist medical professionals in assessing brain health, monitoring recovery, and optimizing performance. With more than 30 published peer-reviewed papers and 12 granted patents, the SyncThink platform uses a series of 60-second assessments to objectively measure eye movements to identify impairments and offers multiple modalities to train dynamic vision. FDA-cleared for detecting eye-tracking impairment and used by leading medical centers such as Stanford and Massachusetts General, the U.S. military, and more than 20 top universities, SyncThink is transforming assessment, recovery, and performance for life and sport. www.syncthink.com
