The NFL, in combination with GE and Under Armour, has set aside a grand total of $60 million dollars in grant money for their Head Health Challenge—attempting to find an answer to the concussion problem plaguing the league.
But according to a team at San Diego State University, the solution to properly diagnosing concussions is as simple as $800 per team.
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Assistant Professor Daniel Goble has been working on his Balance Tracking System, colloquially called the BTrackS, since 2013. Goble gathered data on 500 student athletes, thanks to the SDSU athletic department, for a paper due out in the International Journal of Sport Physical Therapy in March.
The BTrackS is a force plate that an athlete stands upon, and it assesses how much the athlete is swaying. This can help to detect both severe and mild concussions in a matter of minutes. It is a definite upgrade to the current system in place for sideline concussion testing—which involves manual balance tests performed and judged by athletic trainers. Simply, the BTrackS quantifies what athletic trainers cannot.
It is also touted by Goble to be a much more affordable system than most other force plates on the market, which can cost upwards of $10,000.
Outside of the realm of sports, the BTrackS is being tested for clinical settings, such as with patients who have suffered from strokes or Huntington’s disease.
At the moment, there are a number of technologies that can do precisely what the BTrackS does, but in different ways. Seeing as the NFL has quite a bit of money to spend, they will be looking for the most effective system, and it is unclear if the BTrackS is what they have been seeking..
However, the relatively low price tag may be a selling point for college or high school programs, giving them a quick, objective concussion test.