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Texas Longhorns Football To Adopt Concussion Assessment Technology

AUSTIN, TX – NOVEMBER 25: Jake Oliver #6 of the Texas Longhorns is wrapped up by Ridwan Issahaku #31and Travin Howard #32 of the TCU Horned Frogs at Darrell K Royal -Texas Memorial Stadium on November 25, 2016 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Chris Covatta/Getty Images)

The University of Texas is the most recent school to embrace SyncThink’s concussion evaluation technology in college athletics to bring more objectivity to traumatic brain injury tests.

Texas joins the ranks of Iowa State University, which will use EYE-SYNC technology along with Stanford University, which started utilizing the eye-tracking headsets in 2015.

Palo Alto, Calif. and Massachusetts-based SyncThink developed its EYE-SYNC technology during 15 years of clinical studies at institutions such as Stanford and Massachusetts General Hospital. The result is a fast concussion test, which is most often completed in less than one-minute, based on data-focused eye-movement assessments.

The EYE-SYNC concussion system utilizes portable, HIPAA compliant, customized virtual reality headsets to test for irregularities in ocular-motor synchronization and vestibular balance. The eye-tracking headset is used to evaluate athletes in-game as well as during return-to-play situations. The University of Texas will incorporate EYE-SYNC, which holds more than 10 patents and has been officially cleared by the FDA to detect eye-tracking impairment, throughout different athletics programs, including football.

“We are thrilled to work with The University of Texas,” Scott Anderson, SyncThink’s Chief Customer Officer and Stanford University’s former director of athletic training, said in a statement. “It is clear they are leading the way in terms of providing top notch care for their student athletes, and we look forward to our EYE-SYNC solution expanding on that by providing them with key insights to measure, identify, and resolve disorientation in order to ensure a safe return to practice and play.”

EYE-SYNC gives trainers, teams, and clinicians the ability to objectively determine if and when a player is able to return to a game or practice, based on statistics, not less-reliable, human-conducted eye movement testing. The cloud-connected device offers clinicians the ability to go over test results with the athlete in near-real time.

The device measures eye movement that more basic tests cannot pick up. EYE-SYNC users track a circularly rotating target to test for two key metrics: radial/spatial and tangential/timing variability. The university’s sports medicine staff or clinicians then receive an ocular-motor assessment report, which provides results against normative and baseline scores for brain and eye movement function. This allows those involved to chart progress and improvement over time.

The Texas football team also currently uses Riddell InSite helmets to monitor the impact of hits to the head for every player during practice and games. The sensor filled helmets help the program monitor major hits as well as smaller, more reoccurring hits to help improve player safety.

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