Virginia Tech www.vt.edu is leading a $3.3 million multi-center five year study to track head impact exposure. Today, there are more than three million youth football players in the U.S comprising 75 percent of all U.S. football players. This study is the largest and most comprehensive biomedical study of youth football players to date.
The research study funded by NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) www.ninds.nih.gov will track on-field head impacts and accelerations using sensors installed in hundreds of players’ helmets. The study will also look at mouth guards, which will also have sensors installed.
Virginia Tech researchers will monitor and collect data from two local recreational teams. Wake Forest School of Medicine www.wakehealth.edu/School/MD-Program and Brown University www.brown.edu will each monitor and collect data from two youth football teams in their respective regions.
Stefan Duma, head of the university’s Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics www.beam.vt.edu will focus on six teams with nine and ten year old players in three states and follow each team during a five year period as well as the players until they reach 14 years old.
The research team including Jonathan Beckwith and Rick Greenwald, founder of New Hampshire-based technology firm Simbex www.simbex.com and Art Maerlender of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln www.unl.edu, will head the neuropsychology testing and collection.
Simbex supports the “Head Impact Telemetry System” or referred to as HITS, records head impact exposure. HITS is an accelerometer array mounted against a player’s head inside the helmet that can quantify linear and rotational accelerations. The system builds on technology previously used to measure head impacts of Virginia Tech football players since 2003.
Instrumental mouth guards purchased from a second private firm, will be custom fitted to each player. Called the “Vector”, the mouth guard uses accelerometers and gyroscopes to measure linear and rotational accelerations. Both HITS and Vector are able to transmit data wirelessly in real-time to researchers.
Data will be transmitted instantly to researchers near the sidelines, while impact levels are monitored. All practices and games will be videotaped to match sensor data with actual visuals on field impacts. Players will undergo neurocognitive examinations off-field involving computerized tests and balance scores will be included as it is determined by postural stability.