About Us

Greg Defalco, Sofia Main, Mackenzi NierDuffy, Brennah Satterfield, and Lauren Stark

Concussions seriously affect athletes with injuries sustaining a lifetime. Despite these long-lasting injuries, concussions still occur frequently. In one year, 1.7 to 3.0 million concussions are recorded in all level of sports. Most of these concussions occur in sports with athletes wearing helmets, such as football, hockey, and lacrosse. The majority of the athletes that play these sports are students ranging from youth ages 5 to 6 all the way to college students. The human brain does not fully develop until the age of twenty-five, which is years after even the highest-level players end their careers. As a result, student-athletes are more prone to concussions with traumatic brain injuries (TBI). Because coaches, trainers, and doctors do not have numerical data to diagnose a concussion when it happens, serious injuries are often overlooked, allowing athletes to continue to play. An estimated 5 in 10 concussions go unreported due to funds, ignorance of TBIs, and lack of access to medical care. However, this can happen at any level of the sport due to a lack of immediate data on hits that occur during games. For example, Tua Tagovailoa, a professional football player, suffered two serious head injuries in a short time frame. The public saw Tagovailoa possibly seriously injure himself in a game after a hit where he was stumbling off the field and could barely stand. Yet, a week later, Tagovailoa was cleared to play again and was hit in the head again. Instead of stumbling, he started clenching his hands and seizing on the field in response to a most likely brain stem injury that could have been prevented with definitive data on his head injury status the first time. Tagovailoa is one example of the serious injuries that can occur from the lack of data and care of concussions, even when the care, money, and funds are present such as at a professional football game. A major issue in the reporting of concussions is that it largely depends on self-reporting from the athlete in question. Often, an athlete will not report symptoms to stay in the game or due to them not understanding the symptoms they are experiencing. When not reported, a concussion will not get the treatment it needs, and it is possible that another concussion could occur. This is known as Second Impact Syndrome–and can lead to permanent brain damage or even death. Also, even multiple concussions, even when given time to heal, can lead to long-term health complications like chronic traumatic encephalopathy, otherwise known as CTE–a degenerative brain disease that can cause memory loss, depression, anxiety, and even death. Currently, concussion sensing systems often cost thousands of dollars. This makes these products feasible for college and professional football teams with large budgets but not for youth teams where many of these injuries still occur.

If we can detect the severity of a concussive impact and report the data to a coach, trainer, or doctor, then we can reduce the number of unreported and untreated concussions in sports. Although we cannot stop people from getting concussions in sports, we can help relay the right data to allow them to make informed decisions about the state of their brain and the severity of hits received.

Research Poster