Are You Ready For Some Football?

Neuro Kinetics, Inc. (NKI), manufacturers of noninvasive medical diagnostic equipment used worldwide to test for vestibular and neurological conditions, has received a two-part grant under the recently enacted Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to further the company's ongoing clinical studies to collect data for the objective diagnosis of sports concussions.

The Therapeutic Discovery grant was awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, an estimated three million sports-related concussions occur annually in the United States.  For people ages 15 to 24, sports are second only to automobile accidents as the leading cause of Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) and mild Traumatic Brain Injuries (mTBI).

"With much attention focused recently on brain injuries in professional and high school football, there is widespread awareness of just how devastating brain injuries can be over time. Our I-Portal® eye-tracking technology is proving to provide repeatable and objective diagnosis of brain injuries inflicting all athletes in contact sports, from school through professional ranks," said Howison Schroeder, president and CEO of NKI. "As with so many medical issues, accurate and timely diagnosis means better patient care, and that can be a life-changer for a brain injury victim."

NKI is working with a major hospital to expand a database of baseline brain functioning for student athletes in Western Pennsylvania.

"We have already been able to compare a dozen concussion incidents with the baseline data," Schroeder. "We are encouraged that our technology appears to offer an early indication of whether there is brain injury."

The HHS grant will be used to further that research, Schroeder said. The company is also engaged in extensive research with a number of U.S. military hospitals and healthcare facilities to develop new techniques for early diagnosis of TBI and mTBI suffered by soldiers from roadside blasts in Afghanistan and Iraq.