Concussions & Helmets

Micky Collins, a concussion specialist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Sports Medicine Concussion Program, says Manning's continued play put him in great danger, especially if he had gotten hit again. "The worst that can happen is second impact syndrome, when you have two concussions in relatively short duration," says Collins. "That can cause death in an athlete."

Now the Hokies are participating in a study that might help team trainers spot these dangerous collisions right away. The team's helmets are rigged with tiny sensors—like the ones that deploy airbags in cars—called accelerometers, which measure the impacts to the helmets. During play, a transmitter immediately sends real-time information about the force of a collision to a laptop computer on the sideline. The system is called HITS—Head Impact Telemetry System—and is manufactured by Simbex.

After a year of collecting data with HITS, Hokie head trainer Mike Goforth decided to set a threshold to determine how hard might be too hard.

The helmets are rigged with tiny sensors called accelerometers.

Elliot Pellman, chairman of the National Football League's Subcommittee on Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, says the technology is promising, but remains cautious. "Yes, they can measure real time forces, forces that are generated when there is contact to an athlete's helmet," says Pellman. "But the real question is whether that type of information will translate into the ability to diagnose concussions because ultimately concussions are still a clinical diagnosis. It's a diagnosis made by physicians clinically by corroborative data. Whether that data be MRIs, physical examinations, [or] neuropsychological testing, ultimately it's made from the clinician. I'm not sure whether or not that technology will ever be able to replace that."

Goforth agrees that concussions should be diagnosed by a doctor, not a computer. And he adds that right now, the system is used only as a guideline.

Virginia Tech's research was presented at the September, 2004 conference of the American Society of Biomechanics, and was funded by the Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine, the Virginia Tech College of Engineering Department of Sports Medicine, and by Simbex. Simbex's research and development was funded by the National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research at the National Institute for Child Health and Development at the National Institutes of Health. The HITS technology was recently bought by helmet manufacturer Riddell.