New Program Providing Area Schools With Concussion Testing
Medical facilities across Nebraska are teaming up through the Nebraska Sports Concussion Network (NSCN) to offer an innovative concussion testing program called the ImPACT Test™.
The NSCN was founded by Saint Elizabeth Regional Medical Center and Nebraska Orthopedic Sports Medicine, P.C. of Lincoln and has invited the involvement of other medical facilities, including Saint Francis Medical Center in Grand Island, to offer and fund the program in other areas of Nebraska.
“Our mission calls for us to improve the health of our community and we believe we are doing that with this program by improving the health of our student-athletes by providing better tools to diagnose the impact of concussions and by providing appropriate standardized data to determine when that student athlete may participate in sports again,” said Vaughn Minton, Saint Francis Medical Center Strategic Planning director. “This has just been the right thing to do.”
In the first year of the program sponsored by Saint Francis, nine areas schools representing approximately 1,500 student-athletes are participating. They include all four Grand Island high schools (Senior High, Northwest, Central Catholic, Heartland Lutheran) as well as five area schools (Cedar Rapids, Doniphan-Trumbull, Palmer, St. Paul and Wood River).
Saint Francis has hosted two ImPACT training sessions for the coaches (July 20 and Aug. 2). The coaches were trained on how to facilitate the ImPACT baseline concussion tests for student-athletes. At the physician training session in mid-August, Saint Francis hosted 41 participants — a mixture of physicians, physician assistants and physical therapists — who will be either facilitating the ImPACT post-concussion test or interpreting the results of that test.
Minton said getting this new program started has been a team effort.
“Todd Goshorn and Dodd Cox from Grand Island Physical Therapy have been instrumental in getting the information to the school administrators and coaches,” Minton said. “Dave Schultz of the Nebraska Sports Concussion Network and Scott Haas of Saint Elizabeth Regional Medical Center in Lincoln have shared their experiences with us allowing us to get our program running sooner. Dr. Daniel Tomes from Lincoln was the keynote speaker at the physician training seminar. We also want to give a big thank you to the coaches and school administrators who took time from their summer schedule to enroll in this program.”
Cox said the new program is “a win” for local athletic programs, student-athletes and their parents.
“From my standpoint, ImPACT is a great tool for making sure that we’re safely returning kids back to athletics and the classroom in a safe and timely manner,” Cox said. “It gives us a baseline and where the student-athlete at in certain points of time in regard to how their brain is functioning. It’s just another thing we have in the arsenal to protect the student-athlete. It doesn’t prevent a concussion — just like a helmet and a mouth guard don’t prevent a concussion — but it’s just part of what we do have available now to assess and reassess our student-athletes.”
Goshorn, who has used ImPACT for the past two years at Grand Island Senior High, said concussions are by far one of the most important injuries and this tool takes the guesswork out of making a return to play decision.
“Parents of athletes in the surrounding area schools that are using ImPACT should feel confident that the cognitive health of their sons and daughters is being safely evaluated,” Goshorn said. “They should also thank Saint Francis and the Nebraska Sports Concussion Network and their school in taking this important step in the well-being of their athlete.”
For athletes who participate in sports that risk sport-related concussion, the Nebraska Sports Concussion Network will provide a neurocognitive baseline test that provides data assessing brain function that can be used to better manage a concussion should such an injury occur.
“Symptoms are not always definite and the decision to allow an individual to return to activity is not always clear and that is where ImPACT’s data will help us,” said Tomes, a neurosurgeon in Lincoln Nebraska and medical director of the Nebraska Sports Concussion Network. “Most athletes who experience an initial concussion can recover completely as long as they are not returned to exertion or contact play too soon. Research clearly shows that the effects of repeated concussions are cumulative. A concussed athlete whose injury is not managed properly and who returns to play too soon before the brain has had time to heal is at greater risk for further, more serious injury, and that is a road you never want to travel.”
The ImPACT Test, developed by doctors at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Sports Medicine Concussion Program, has proven to be a useful tool in measuring the severity and effects of concussion and determining when it is safe for concussed athletes to return to sports or activity.
With ImPACT, the athlete takes a 20-minute preseason test on a computer that measures brain processing speed, memory, attention span, and visual motor skills, where an individual’s baseline data are stored on a computer server. Should an athlete ever experience a concussion, they will take the ImPACT test again post-injury. Post-concussion data are then compared to baseline data to help determine the severity and effects of the injury. The data help determine when the athlete’s neurocognitive brain function has returned to baselines (normal) and when it is safe for the athlete to return to sports or activity.
Current ImPACT users include all NFL and NHL teams, the NBA; Major League Baseball, including all umpires, numerous NCAA Division I football programs, including the University of Nebraska athletics teams. In all, more than 1,200 high schools and 300 major colleges and universities nationwide utilize ImPACT Testing, including 80-plus high schools here in Nebraska.
The Nebraska Sports Concussion Network was established in the spring of 2010 and since has tested more than 3,000 athletes. Baseline testing funded by NSCN is planned for sports participants in grades 9-12 in a collision or contact sport (football, softball, and volleyball, basketball, wrestling, diving, track-jumpers, soccer and baseball) at schools included in Saint Francis Medical Center’s coverage area. Schools will have the option to purchase additional tests for other athletes or groups including junior high athletes.
Minton said Saint Francis plans to continue sponsoring the program for the foreseeable future.
“This year we focused on grades 9-12 and our future plans include allowing the student athletes in grades 6-8 to also participate,” Minton said. “The Nebraska Sports Concussion Network has plans to continue to move west into the Kearney community next year.”