Concussion Quick-Check App for Sports

P2H created an app to record the condition of a student-athlete after a head injury and quickly evaluate if they need to see a healthcare provider or can return to play.

Client
Startup focused on sports medicine
Industry
Healthcare, SaaS

Project

A head injury can potentially inflict permanent brain damage or even lead to fatality. When an injury occurs in school sports, coaches or school medical staff are responsible for deciding whether a student should continue playing, rest, or seek medical attention.

This decision isn’t always easy. Conflicting viewpoints can arise, as coaches, team members, or parents may push for continued play to win a game or secure a scholarship. At the same time, medical professionals have to safeguard student well-being and prevent legal repercussions.

The client asked P2H to develop a mobile app for evaluating suspected concussion in student-athletes. The main app features are:

The ability to evaluate the severity of a head injury using a standardized assessment protocol
Support on iOS and Android smartphones and tablets
Online and offline availability
Prompt collection, storage, communication, and evaluation of data
Secure data sharing through the cloud
Compliance with HIPAA, FERPA, and PIPEDA regulations for healthcare and personal data privacy

Results

P2H developed a reliable and multifunctional app and information portal that lets athletic trainers assess possible concussion symptoms, get advice on recommended action, and share information with medical providers and other stakeholders.

The solution meets government health privacy standards such as HIPAA, PIPEDA, and FERPA. It has also been approved by concussion management specialists, including physicians and athletic trainers, for use in sports and recreational activities.

Solution

Testing of multiple concussion symptoms

The PHP team incorporated six tests and decision options to offer a complete sideline assessment in just a few minutes. The process is based on the SCAT protocol as well as best practices and consensus statements from organizations such as the IOC, IIHF, FIFA, FEI, and World Rugby.

The application uses red, yellow, and green indicators and contextual alerts to give essential information and reminders in an assessment situation. As soon as a user enters all the information to be tested across one or all of the six parameters, the app returns a decision (recommended course of action). This could be visiting the emergency room by ambulance or car, consulting a licensed medical provider, keeping the student under observation, or allowing a return to play.

Real-time, secure data sharing, and remote reporting

The application uses cloud-based storage with real-time sync and data sharing. This allows for accurate assessment as well as later analysis by the school and medical personnel. Additionally, school medical staff can securely send injury reports to authorized medical providers and parents via encrypted emails.

The app also supports e-signing of assessments to ensure their legitimacy. Furthermore, the app automatically captures location, time, and date, preventing any possibility of documents being modified after the fact and thus preserving their value in court.

Information portal development

The mobile app is complemented by an information portal consolidating data for each institutional user. For example, school administrators can see the total number of students evaluated and how many of them were diagnosed with a concussion.

The web portal allows for tracking the number of head injuries and reporting those cases to the schools’ principals, parents, or medical professionals. Although the report data is a perfect basis for further analytics using our portal, we designed it to be intended strictly for schools using it within their systems. All because it may contain student’s individual identifying information which is protected against unauthorized use.

Challenges

Accurate and comprehensive implementation of multiple assessment protocols

A concussion can present itself in multiple ways, which is why the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) advises that no single test should be used as the sole basis for determining whether a player can safely resume play after a head injury.

Instead, evaluating the severity of suspected concussion involves close observation of multiple symptoms, including retrograde and anterograde amnesia, loss of consciousness, headaches, dizziness, blurred vision, and concentration difficulties.

The Sports Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT) is a standardized tool for checking such symptoms, recommending appropriate action, and monitoring player recovery. P2H’s challenge was to accurately integrate the SCAT along with guidelines from NATA and other organizations into an app to enable swift and thorough injury assessment.

Standardized and secure data sharing, report storage, and management

Quality documentation and reporting are key to reliable case evaluation and follow-up. Yet, in a school setting, sports accidents are often recorded on paper, vulnerable to damage, loss, or illegibility.

Our team had to develop a thorough, medically sound, and well-documented concussion evaluation process that would stand up to scrutiny from parents, players, and courts. Furthermore, the process had to be acceptable to medical professionals as a basis for further assessment, diagnosis, and return-to-play advice.

All evaluation records had to be securely stored and easily retrievable, as documents that have been altered after the fact have less value in court. The records also had to be signed by those responsible for making the assessment and must clearly show what was done and when it was completed.