Cleveland Clinic pilots iPad app for concussion diagnosis

Cleveland Clinic is conducting a pilot study of a concussion-diagnosis application created by its researchers for Apple’s iPad 2.

The new mobile medical app uses the iPad 2′s built-in accelerometer and gyroscope to measure post-injury changes in an athlete’s balance, which is an indicator of brain function, The Plain Dealer reported.

The app works by strapping an iPad to an athlete’s waist and then measuring changes to the athlete’s postural stability on hard and soft surfaces.

Clinic researchers are currently working with two Northeast Ohio high schools and a local university on a 100-athlete pilot study of the concussion app.

It’s too early to say whether the Clinic has any plans to commercialize the app. The development team behind the project is currently focused on testing the app on enough athletes so it can be further validated. The goal is to eventually publish an article on the app in a peer-reviewed journal, a Clinic spokeswoman said.

It’d be premature to establish any plans for the app until it’s shown to be a valuable tool for doctors and other health providers, she said. It’s currently being tested on football and soccer players, but could be expanded to other sports in the future.

The research is being led by Jay Alberts, a biomedical engineer with the Clinic. He came up with the idea for the app from previous research on Parkinson’s disease, which can have similar symptoms to a concussion.

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