MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Many high school football teams are already practicing for next season. They’re learning to run faster, hit harder. It’s those hard hits that have researchers looking for ways to diagnose concussions earlier.
WREG takes a look at a new device that may soon be waiting on the sidelines to help injured players.
WREG was there for the first day of spring football practice for the Memphis Academy of Health Sciences, also known as MAHS. It’s one of the few charter schools with a high school football team. The team is glad to finally run some plays, but the hits will have to wait.
“We’re just in helmets and cleats. We’re not able to hit each other right now because we don’t want anybody getting hurt because we’re not fully padded yet,” said 11th-grader Jalin Edwards.
The hits will come, and the coach knows concussions could easily follow.
“Some of the symptoms I try to tell them are stomach-ache, vomiting, headache that doesn’t go away. Dilation of the pupils in the eyes,” said Coach Cedric Miller of Memphis Academy of Health Science.
The MAHS head football coach is looking forward to a new, faster way to detect concussions. One device scientists are using involves a headset called a transcranial doppler device. It’s being tested in California and uses ultrasound to map blood flow changes in the brain.
“If we can have those kind of instruments intact on the field, where we can monitor the kid as soon as we think or if the ref comes and tells us that this kid took a nice shot to the head, we can be able to analyze and get the kids to the proper medical attention that he needs,” said Miller.
Statistics compiled across the country show high school football players suffer the highest number of concussions.
Neural Analytics is doing the tests in California. It compared ultrasounds of more than 200 high school athletes. The company says it had an 83 percent rate in detecting concussions.
They’re still researching this device, but the ultimate goal is to have this portable headset available on the sidelines so the coaches can tell immediately if an injured player needs more tests.
Miller said the headset would help him keep his players safe.
“We don’t take any chances with these kids’ lives because they have futures beyond this football field, and that’s the most important thing that we are concerned about.”
Having the device on the sidelines of high school games will help coaches like Miller get a better handle on detecting when players just took a hard lick or if they have actually have a concussion.
Students in the study took part in different kinds of sports including football, soccer, basketball, cheerleading and track. The study included both boys and girls.