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UCLA Using Special Helmets to Study Head Injury

One of the latest, and best looking, tools in the study of head injuries. - Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

In a subject that is very near and dear to by heart - and my head - U.C.L.A. is joining a group of institutions that will utilize special football helmets containing accelerometers that can quantify the forces involved in head impact. Twenty-two Bruin football players will wear special helmets with sensors that will measure speed, intensity, and trajectory of forces applied to the head in practices and games this year.

The special helmets are part of a larger series of studies being conducted on NCAA athletes to better understand the causes and natural course of head injuries. The project is funded by the NCAA and the Department of Defense,

From the UCLA Newsroom

The innovative studies are part of the Concussion Assessment Research and Education Grand Alliance, a landmark $30 million initiative funded by the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the U.S. Department of Defense to collect "big data" on concussions. The three-year project aims to fill critical gaps in knowledge about concussion and translate research findings into new safety guidelines for the more than 450,000 U.S. collegiate student-athletes.

U.C.L.A. is participating in two parts of the initiative. The first part of the study will gather neurologic and cognitive data from over 25.000 college athletes. Besides the football players, 40 Bruins soccer players will be studied as well. Evaluations will include baseline neurocognitive testing that will be repeated annually, and then serially over 6 months for any athlete who suffers a concussion. U.C.L.A. is one of 21 Universities and Military Academies participating in this part of the project.

The special helmets will be used in the second part of the study where the data from the helmet sensors, blood tests, and other studies will be analyzed in relation to head injuries. Four hundred athletes competing in football, soccer, ice hockey, and lacrosse will be included in this part of the study. These athletes will also undergo neurocognitive testing as well as brain imaging following a concussion. Besides U.C.L.A., Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Virginia Tech will use the special helmets. The funding for the sensors was provided by Steve Tisch, the Chairman, Executive VP, and one of the co-owners of the New York Giants.

At U.C.L.A., the data from the helmet sensors will transmitted wirelessly to sideline computers that will catalog the information. Trainers and medical staff will have access to the info real time and can use it to determine which hits are more likely to cause injury, or if a pattern of impacts suggests a player may be more susceptible to injury. Analyzing the information can also be used to assess tackling techniques from a coaching standpoint and theoretically prevent a head injury before one occurs.

The main purpose of the project is to better understand the mechanics of head impact, the neurocognitive and biochemical processes that occur following "routine" impact versus "injury", and the best management processes for identifying and treating head injuries in athletes.

I'm very happy to see U.C.L.A. participating in this sort of study, and it's good to see technology that we use every day in our smartphones being put into football helmets to study head impact in more detail. I see patients in the ER with head injuries every day from all sorts of causes, and more knowledge about how to quantify head impact and to tailor management can only be a good thing. This information would obviously be of benefit to our student-athletes, but with proper application, it could also possibly be extended to anyone who suffers a head injury, regardless of age or mechanism. Also as a dad with two kids who play hockey who has seen several concussions in kids as early as 10 years old, the importance of defining the proper recognition and management of head injuries for non-medical professionals is crucial.

I have been lucky to be affiliated with a group of practitioners that has been at the nation's forefront in the education and management of head injuries in youth athletics, and there is a good database to use as a basis for recognition and treatment for concussions. However, too often the information and symptoms following a head injury is subjective or frankly biased by the athlete's or the parent's desire to return to play. Possibly, different impacts can result in different injury patterns, each with a potentially different natural course of recovery. Also, individual athletes vary in their ability to tolerate an injury and then recover from an injury, so there probably isn't a one-size-fits-all management pathway.

These and other factors limit our ability to perfectly diagnose and prescribe treatment following head trauma, and explain why any effort to generate more objective data would be beneficial to both the player and the medical provider. Ideally, if there proves to be reliable data that information from the helmet sensors is sensitive and specific for injury patterns and management, the accelerometers and the downlinks employed in the experimental helmets that the Bruins are wearing could and should become standard in all helmets. It would be pretty cool to see my son wearing a more protective and informative hockey helmet in a few years that is based on data and technology that trickled down from U.C.L.A. football into youth athletics.

In the meantime, I will continue to try to tie pillows, bubble wrap, and beach balls to him before he goes out on the ice. Granted, it would slow him down, but it would make him easy to identify. He's not going for it, however. So, safer equipment and better knowledge it is.

GO BRUINS!

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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