Allows all athletes from grade school through college, concussion management continuity, where schools and healthcare providers partner to test at no cost to the school, provider or athlete
Research Triangle Park, NC April 15, 2015—Responding to growing public health concerns surrounding concussions and concussion management for student athletes, Concussion Vital Signs, an online neurocognitive testing platform designed to integrate with concussion management protocols, announced today it will provide its services at no cost to any school, college or university.
The free testing program was pre-announced during the third Matthew Gfeller Neurotrauma Symposium, held at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on March 6, 2015. Following the symposium, Kevin Guskiewicz, one of the nation’s leading concussion researchers, said the testing program could serve as an important cost-effective assessment tool for clinicians.
“As researchers in this field, our mission is to improve concussion prevention, evaluation, and management,” said Guskiewicz. “My fellow researchers and I have endeavored to place clinically viable, valid, and affordable tools in the hands of trained medical providers for almost two decades. We have long advocated for the use of computerized neurocognitive testing as one piece of the clinician’s concussion toolbox, and have used many test software platforms in our clinical and research initiatives. Limited fiscal resources are often a barrier to including cognitive testing as part of a multi-faceted concussion management program. It will be exciting to see how the recent announcement by Concussion Vital Signs might change the landscape.”
Dale Folwell, former NC House Speaker Pro Tem and current NC Assistant Secretary of Commerce, added, “We are proud that a North Carolina company has the foresight and desire to try and address a public health issue that for years went unrecognized. We passed the Gfeller – Waller Concussion Act several years ago to help better address sports related concussion. This announcement allows schools a new level of care.”
“Going forward, concussion testing will not depend on what zip code you live in or the fiscal or budgetary constraints of the school system,” stated Alan Boyd, CEO of CNS Vital Signs, the parent company of Concussion Vital Signs. “We hope this small act contributes to the public good and elevates awareness as well as the safety of all student athletes. It is important that there is a continuum of care from baseline testing through post injury so that any qualified healthcare provider will be able to administer post injury testing via the school account.”
As of April 15, 2015, any school, college or university can sign up at www.concussionvitalsigns.com for their free online account, which offers baseline and post injury neurocognitive testing as well as patient reported questionnaires.
ABOUT CNS VITAL SIGNS. CNS Vital Signs is a leading provider of computerized neurological and psychological testing throughout the world. Products include CNS Vital Signs, Concussion Vital Signs and Cognitrax. The application is available in over 60 languages and supports a diverse set of customers, spanning academic and pharmaceutical research to private practice. The company offers its tools in both web and local running formats allowing testing in any computerized environment.
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