Source: XLNTbrain LLC
NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland (June 24, 2014) — A new alliance formed between XLNTbrain LLC and GForceTracker™ Inc. (GFT) provides the first “fully-integrated” concussion management system to include Hit Count® Certified impact sensors with concussion management tools and software. Both companies will exhibit how the technologies have merged together for the first time at the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) 65th Clinical Symposia & AT Expo at the Indiana Convention Center, June 25-28 (booth #206).
By integrating GFT’s impact sensor technology into XLNTbrain’s concussion management system, sports organizations can benefit from a single platform that meets or exceeds concussion protocols, guidelines and position statements established by NATA, National Football League, American Academy of Neurology and other medical organizations.
The strategic alliance provides coaches, parents, athletic trainers and other medical professionals with a concussion management system that includes:
-Educational activity that complies with statewide sports concussion laws
-Comprehensive baseline testing
-Impact sensors tracking number and force of hits sustained by the head
-XLNTbrain-Mobile app that assesses and documents word memory, orientation and balance testing using smartphone accelerometer technology
-Email reporting to designated individuals
-XLNTbrain Daily Symptom Tracker tool
-5-Step Progressive Exertion recovery care plan, guiding the return-to-play decision.
-A fully automated and customizable return-to-learn Academic Care Plan based on concussion symptoms to help injured athletes return to the school environment.
-XLNTbrain.com dashboard provides real-time monitoring of athletes in the system
“Merging hit count and collision force data through GFT impact sensors with XLNTbrain’s technology improves athletic trainers and other ‘concussion coordinators’ ability of detecting concussion risk,” said Harry Kerasidis, M.D., a double-board certified neurologist who has studied and treated hundreds of concussions in his 25 year practice. “While we await research and development announced recently through the White House, the most robust, clinical-caliber and fully-integrated concussion management system is available now. This alliance also presents an unprecedented opportunity to further research the correlations between traumatic forces to the head and clinical consequences, including duration and intensity of symptoms, impairment of cognitive performance and effects on balance.”
Dr. Kerasidis explained a few ways GFT’s impact sensors can assist athletic trainers with their concussion protocols both on and off the field because:
GFT’s accelerometers can detect force of impact, but athletes vulnerability to concussion injury vary given the same force.
GFT’s cloud-based software tracks sub-concussive hits which have cumulative toll on brain function.
During post-concussion recovery, GFT’s sensors assist with preventing re-injury to the brain.
Application Examples: GFT Integrated with XLNTbrain
1. GFT allows individual’s to pre-set a maximum level of collision force. If an athlete sustains that force to the head during practice or gameplay, the player can be taken out for an evaluation using the XLNTbrain Sideline Assessment Tool. If there are no signs of concussion, the athlete can return to the game with close monitoring for the rest of the game and the days that follow.
2. If an athlete sustains a certain number of significant hits, the XLNTbrain Baseline Test can be repeated to make sure that these hits are not causing brain dysfunction.
3. While a recovering concussed athlete goes through XLNTbrain’s 5-Step Progressive Exertion process, using the XLNTbrain Daily Symptom Checklist to monitor for recurrence of concussion related symptoms, GFT’s real-time monitor ensures that the athlete’s head does not experience collision force enough to delay recovery.
Paul Walker, GFT co-founder and President, said the alliance blends two technology systems into a single platform that delivers athletic trainers, athletes and sports organizations better data to make informed decisions.
“We are delivering the best in class, fully-integrated solution for sports concussion management,” Walker added. “Combining the sophistication of our GFT hardware and cloud-based software solution, with the concussion management system of XLNTbrain we can now track impacts that accumulate over the course of a practice, game, season, year or lifetime and deliver evidence-based data that is highly relevant to to athletic trainers when conducting baseline testing and sideline assessments.”
GForceTracker™ Inc. is the first sensor company to be Hit Count® Certified for football, hockey and lacrosse by the Sports Legacy Institute (SLI). The SLI is a non-profit organization founded in 2007 by Dr. Robert Cantu and Christopher Nowinski to “solve the concussion crisis” by advancing the study, treatment, and prevention of the effects of brain trauma in athletes and other at-risk groups. Working with leading experts, SLI developed a lab-based test protocol that sensors must pass to be Hit Count® Certified as well as a universal Hit Count® Threshold that all certified sensors use to begin counting hits.
About GForceTracker™ Inc.
GForceTracker™ Inc. is an advanced linear g-force and rotational impact sensor monitoring system that accumulates a lifetime of head impacts. The detection device monitors, measures and provides vital statistics such as number of impacts, severity of impacts, local alarming when the impact exceeds an acceptable threshold and accumulates this data to provide key metrics that determine whether its user has suffered a possible head injury. The GFT is currently the only Hit Count® Certified head impact sensor on the market and can be used by individual players or entire teams in both helmeted and non-helmeted sports. The GFT which weighs less than an ounce, and is approximately the size of a domino can be attached to the outside or inside of the helmet, and can be purchased for individuals or team use. For more information please visit gforcetracker.com.
About XLNTbrain, LLC
XLNTbrain LLC provides the first complete concussion management program for all sports and levels. Based in National Harbor, Maryland, XLNTbrain assists parents, coaches, athletic trainers and health professionals with a fully-integrated platform designed to help recognize concussions, monitor hit count and severity, assist with detecting concussions and guide athletes safely back to normal activity and gameplay. More information about XLNTbrain Sport™ is available at xlntbrain.com, by calling (855) 333-9568 or emailing [email protected].
