DETECT: Diagnosing Concussion Immediately

Soon you won’t need to flip fingers in front of a dazed DB asking “How many fingers?” or ask your starting QB to count backwards by 7’s from 100. There’s a new device in the validation stage that can detect concussions on the sidelines or in the locker room – in five to seven minutes. This instrument, called DETECT (Display Enhanced Testing for Cognitive Impairment and Traumatic Brain Injury), is being developed by David Wright MD of Emory University in Atlanta and Michelle LaPlaca, PhD, biomedical engineer and associate professor at Georgia Tech. The device is composed of three parts: a laptop, headset and a handheld unit. It compares after-injury response time and memory accuracy to measurements taken before the injury when the athlete is alert and healthy. The developers of DETECT hope to be able to give coaches and trainers a heads up in order to prevent the possibility