A groundbreaking portable tool that can immediately identify evidence of a concussion is being developed by University of Missouri researchers.
The tool, called the Mizzou Point-of-Care Assessment System, has a promising application in sports where it may be possible to assess an athlete’s condition on the field or at another facility.
Previously, concussions were diagnosed using subjective self-reporting procedures. The new tool can determine if patients have a concussion objectively, based on their movements after an incident.
Until now, patients would share their symptoms, such as dizziness or a headache, which required a medical interpretation.
“One of the issues with the current way to assess concussions is athletes can game it,” said Trent Guess, associate professor in Mizzou’s Department of Physical Therapy and a lead researcher in the tool’s development.
“If you really want to go back and play, and I ask, ‘Do you have a headache?’ You can say, ‘I feel fine.’ This tool is objective. You can’t fake it,” Guess added.
With the assessment tool, the patient stands in front of a 3D-printed panel with a camera attached at eye-level. Following computer commands, the patient performs a series of movements like walking, jumping or stepping on a platform.
The system tests the patient’s cognitive ability using different parts of their brain and body at the same time, called a dual task construct.
For instance, if lights on the panel flash yellow once and blue twice, the patient must hop on the left foot. The assessment tool can detect a concussion based on the patient’s reactions.
“It’s tracking your center of mass,” Guess said. “Even if you’re standing there, your movement has these subtle signatures just because your ability to control your balance has been compromised.”
So far, Guess said the research team has been able to do a handful of successful trials with the assessment system.
Becky Bliss, the program coordinator for MU Health Care Neurological Physical Therapy Residency, said that MU Health Care sees nearly 300, if not more, patients with a concussion each year.
Bliss is also the clinical associate professor at University of Kansas Medical Centers of Physical Therapy, Rehab Science and Athletic Training Department.
Nationwide, “3.8 million concussions occur in the United States annually because of sport and recreation, with up to 50% of concussions going unreported,” according to a 2023 report from the U.S. National Library of Medicine. That number has been increasing every year.
In addition to injuries in athletes, concussions may be related to motor-vehicle crashes or from falls, especially in older adults.
“We see it across the population,” Bliss said.
More than 700 patients have been tested with the Mizzou Point-of-Care Assessment System, many of them athletes at Mizzou and nearby colleges such as William Woods University, Central Methodist University and Columbia College.
“The tool is lightweight and portable enough to be disassembled, put in a car and taken to the sidelines of a game for a quick assessment,” Guess said.
“Not only does it detect and diagnose the acute phase of the concussion, or, right after you had it or a couple days after you had it,” he said, “but it can track progress and the lingering effects.”
Continuing to use the system over time can track the patient’s recovery based on their improvement in subtle movements, Guess said. It can help identify when an athlete can be cleared to play without risk of future injury.
“It is super important because it can help to speed (up) recovery, allowing rehab providers to design better therapy intervention,” Bliss said.
“If we could actually assess this sooner, these patients would get better faster through rehab and through the identification of what the actual issues are,” she added.
Although concussion diagnosis is the goal of The Mizzou Point-of-Care Assessment System, it could be used to distinguish older adults at mild cognitive impairment and fall risk, study patients with cerebral palsy, screen for orthopedic purposes or assess athletic ability.
“It has the potential to get into sports medicine offices and into rehab clinics, into athletic training rooms and sports,” Bliss said.
“The tools under development are not only going help detect issues with movement but also treat movement issues,” Guess said.
“Movement is a big part of being human,” he said. “That’s what we do. When that movement is compromised, that’s a big deal.”
