No matter the level of a sport, most athletes have to deal with the risk of concussions. For the past five years, there has been more than a 50% increase of concussion reports in England’s rugby. Because of this, the rules have been recently altered to help protect players from head injuries, and now, a New Zealand based company, CSx, has developed a concussion management software to try and further decrease these injuries.
CSx is a technology company focused on the management of concussions in sports. The company’s goal is to help find solutions to current issues relating to concussion management. CSx has been developing the new technology for the past four years and the company has worked with rugby teams, such as the Hurricanes and the Melbourne Rebels, to test the software.
Ed Lodge, founder of CSx, said, “We have worked closely with World Rugby to provide a system that is intuitive to use and that provides a comprehensive method of ensuring players are both managed and tracked efficiently.”
The concussion management software, CSX Impact Hub, is a cloud-based software that tracks the concussion history of a player in their career and is accessible by tablet. It allows users to administer tests, compare data, share reports and control account access while engaging with players to help with concussion management.
The software includes additional medical information including treatments, medications, vaccinations and allergies for each profile. Even when a team is traveling, the data will still be available because it is all cloud-based. The data will be used to make quicker and better decisions on the heath of a player.
“The significant advantage of this system is the availability of baseline data for medics who are completing the sideline assessment. The system will also support compliance with data collection and underpin research in this critical area of sideline head injury management,” explained the Chief Medical Officer at World Rugby, Martin Raftery.
CSx is showcasing the product at the 2015 Rugby World Cup. This World Cup will be monitoring more head injuries and concussions far more than previous World Cups. Team doctors will have secure and mobile access to each player’s history and baseline data for immediate comparison.
After the World Cup, CSx plans on releasing a range of sport specific versions of the software. It will be customized to different sports and their own concussion management protocols. The company is also looking to develop a new way to reduce the effects of concussions. One idea includes a small microchip that would be fitted behind a player’s ear. The chip would identify dangerous hits to the head.
Other sports are likely to follow the lead of adapting concussion management software to make it safer for players.