Hayley Wickenheiser once won multiple medals in Olympic and world championship competition for the Canadian national hockey team. Recently, she joined another high-profile team: the professional advisory board of Highmark Interactive, a medical technology company seeking to change how athletes manage concussions and other brain injuries.
Wickenheiser is one of three former athletes to form the team that will advise Highmark Interactive as it develops a video game that will “revolutionize patient management,” according to a press release. The others joining the board are Olympic medal-winning snowboarder Mark McMorris and former NHL player Bryce Salvador.
The three athletes will be joined also by Andy O’Brien, the director of sport science and performance for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Highmark Interactive claims that over one million Canadians live with a brain injury, but management and treatment options are not widely known are available — a “silent epidemic.”
“Major athletes are looking to the private sector for help in the fight against concussions,” Wickenheiser said in a statement. “It’s great to be a part of such a collaborative team of athletes, doctors and tech innovators who care deeply about supporting the research and treatment of traumatic brain injuries.”
With video games seemingly more popular than ever — video game revenue reached $91 billion across the world in 2016 —Highmark is using the medium to reach more people who have suffered a concussion or other brain injury. The company has more than $2 million to work with from a recent seed round.
Highmark’s video games are educational in nature, but also work to collect baseline neurological data that can be used to facilitate recovery.
“Our vision at Highmark Interactive is bold and ambitious,” Dr. Sanjeev Sharma, Highmark Interactive’s co-founder, said in a statement. “We believe entrepreneurs will have an important role in tackling the concussion epidemic through the development of new technologies that will be instrumental to managing injured patients. Our professional advisors are the perfect compliment to our diverse, world-class team. They have seen the impact of traumatic brain injuries firsthand. Their leadership and insight will be invaluable to our success.”
The company, founded just this year, looks to become a helpful force in the treatment and management of traumatic brain injuries.