Ole Miss may be able to detect concussions in real time this fall
Ole Miss has installed a technology that it simultaneously hopes to never use and hopes proves successful enough that every program in the country copies them.
This fall, Vaught-Hemmingway Stadium will become the only stadium in the world with the capacity to detect concussions as they happen in real time. As reported by the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, the Rebels will work with X2 Biosystems, a firm that works with everyone from the NFL to the Department of Defense, to place an "X-patch" either behind a player's ear or in his mouthpiece, which will then instantly transmit data to eight sensors stationed around the field.
The team's medical staff will then have real-time data tracking impact to players' heads at their fingertips.
"Basically there's no thumbs up or thumbs down assessment tool that says whether or not someone has a concussion," Ole Miss assistant engineering professor Matthew Morrison told the paper, "but this gives them the information to have a rapid and accurate assessment and help them decide how quickly they can return the athlete to play."
That sensors will show the type of impact a players' head receives - whether from an opposing player or a collision with the ground - and be used in game film to correct technique when necessary.
"How much force is needed and how many repetitions does it take?" said Ole Miss senior associate athletic director for health and sports performance Shannon Singletary. "What this new sensor tells us is both of those. It tells us exactly where the head is taking the impact, the exact number of hits during the practice or competition that the athlete has received, and the amount of force with which they're hit."
