BrainScope Company, Inc. today announced that it has received an award from GE and the National Football League (NFL) to further enhance its portable concussion assessment system by combining imaging biomarkers with its brainwave technology. In 2013, GE and the NFL created the $10 million Head Health Challenge I competition to award entrants for proposals focusing on "identifying breakthrough technologies and approaches that will improve the diagnosis and prognosis of mild traumatic brain injury (TBI)." The sixteen recipients of the award, including BrainScope, were announced today in New York.
Under this Head Health Challenge Award, BrainScope will collaborate with the Purdue Neurotrauma Group to conduct a study in collegiate athletes leveraging the BrainScope EEG-based technology, combined with neuroimaging tools, to augment its field-deployable system with an aim of providing enhanced traumatic brain injury detection and return to play decisions. While assessment of patients with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has been shown to be sensitive to TBI, they are not well-suited for sideline usage or field deployment.
"There is a great need for mdical devices that can help clinicians rapidly and objectively assesses TBI, including its most mild forms, at the point of care," said Michael Singer, President and CEO of BrainScope. "We are honored to receive this award from GE and the NFL, and are very pleased to be working in collaboration with the Purdue Neurotrauma Group, whose research on mild traumatic brain injury biomechanics and the underlying pathophysiology has been pathbreaking."
