BrainScope Company Inc, based in Bethesda, Md, announces in a news release that it has received an additional $500,000 award from GE and the National Football League (NFL) to further develop its portable concussion assessment system.
This system is one of six final winners of the GE NFL Head Health Challenge I, which, the release explains, was created by GE and the NFL 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).”
Under the first phase of the Challenge, the release explains, BrainScope—along with the Purdue Neurotrauma Group—conducted a study in athletes using neuroimaging tools to explore the relationship with BrainScope’s urgent care, handheld, electroencephalograph (EEG) traumatic brain injury detection technology. The study demonstrated the potential of BrainScope measures to act as a surrogate biomarker for neuroimaging in the evaluation of concussion and revealed the unique potential for a marker of those with increased vulnerability/susceptibility to concussion if they return to play.
As a result of this study and in partnership with the US Department of Defense, the portable concussion assessment system that BrainScope is developing is used at the point of care and utilizes the EEG technology to optimally identify concussed from non-concussed patients, according to the release.
BrainScope will use the additional funding from GE and the NFL to conduct further studies in high schools to help develop the technology to objectively identity concussion and assess players’ recovery.
“We are greatly honored to receive this second award from GE and the NFL and are enthusiastic about the opportunity to extend this important work,” says Michael Singer, chief executive officer of BrainScope, in the release.
“The learnings from the first phase of the Head Health Challenge have provided valuable insights as a foundation for this next phase of multi-site studies in high schools across the United States as we work toward the development of our handheld concussion assessment system for future use in both adults and adolescents,” he continues.
[Source: BrainScope Company Inc]
