In the ongoing war against sports-related concussions, high school athletic trainers like Garden City’s Brandi Hildreth are on the front lines.
Thanks to a recently-implemented Michigan High School Athletic Association pilot program, Hildreth and her colleagues across the state will be armed this season with new, head injury-detecting weapons: the King-Devick Test and MHSAA-issued computer tablets.
Beginning with the fast-approaching fall sports season, athletes at Garden City and several other schools across Michigan will be asked to complete the King-Devick Test, which is a rapid-eye movement screening evaluation that requires them to read single-digit numbers displayed on a tablet computer.
The test takes just two to three minutes for each athlete, Hildreth said.
“The athletes read the numbers as quickly as possible and a baseline is created that we store along with their name, birth date and other information,” said Hildreth. “If, for instance in football, I see a player involved in a hard hit, I will bring them over to the sideline and have them re-take the test. If the time it takes them is even one second longer than their baseline, or if they skip a line or miss a number, there’s a chance they may have suffered a concussion.”
Hildreth said the athletes she’s worked with so far this summer haven’t had a problem with taking the baseline-establishing test.
“It’s quick and easy, and there’s no memorization, so I think they like it,” she said.
Garden City head football coach Scott Murray said he’s all for any additional tool that can help trainers and coaches recognize concussion symptoms.
“Ideally, we never have to use it, but if we do need it, the test is a good gauge of where a kid’s at in terms of thinking,” Murray said. “It seems like every year they’re coming up with new ways to prevent and recognize concussions, so that’s a positive sign.”
The King-Devick Test was developed by doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
“The first and most critical step in managing concussion in the youth athlete is to recognize when one has occurred, which is not always a simple task,” said Dr. David Dodick, professor of neurology and director of sports concussion services at the Mayo Clinic. “The King-Devick test helps take the guesswork and subjectivity out of the sideline evaluation in a rapid, accurate and objective way.”
The MHSAA supplied each of the participating schools with five tablet computers to distribute among their coaches.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
http://www.hometownlife.com/story/sports/2015/08/11/concussion-testing/31508821/