Sport Medicine's new Concussion Management Program

Concussions are more than what you may think. Anyone that has ever played sports has probably heard "Ah, they're okay---they just got their bell rung."

This isn't the case in today's world.

What is a concussion? Simply put, it's a brain injury. Symptoms may occur at the time of injury or later. Up to a week later in fact.

Sharon Regional's Sports Medicine program recently implemented ImPACT, a new concussion management program, this school year in the Hermitage, Mercer, and Sharon school districts, which contract with the Health System for sports medicine services.

"ImPACT is a user-friendly computer based testing program specifically designed for the management of sports-related concussions," says Jim McNeil, MHSA, ATC, director of sports medicine at Sharon Regional. "The instrument has been designed after approximately 10-years of University-based, grant-supported research. ImPACT is currently the most widely utilized computerized program in the world and is implemented effectively across high school, collegiate, and professional levels of sport participation." 

Testing involves pre-injury or preseason baseline testing to establish an athletes "normal" value.  Then should a brain injury or "concussion" occur, the injured athlete is given a post-test at a prescribed time to determine if they have completely recovered from their brain injury/concussion. Post testing continues at predetermined intervals until the athlete has completely recovered from their injury and it is deemed safe for the athlete to return to sports.

ImPACT is one example of Sharon Regional's Sports Medicine commitment to keeping young athletes healthy. For more information, please call 724-813-7252.