New concussion testing underway for spring sports
by Alex Dodge
Starting with the 2020 spring season for sports, Judge is implementing a new concussion protocol with hopes that it will be more effective than previous tests. Mr. Angelo and the rest of the Judge’s sports medicine team believe that this system will bring better results for students.
“We're moving to a new program that's called VOMS (Vestibular-Ocular Motor Screening) which takes a clinician to actually do,” Mr. Angelo said. In addition to VOMS, another test will be used called the SCAT5 (Sport Concussion Assessment Tool 5). “We want the students to get on one-on-one baseline with the clinician, so that prior to an injury, we can screen out some of the problems a student might have once they have a concussion.”
The testing began this Wednesday, February 12, during school and will continue after school. Mr. Angelo is excited about the new way of testing for a number of reasons.
“The program is new,” he said in an interview on Tuesday. “We're looking to kick it off tomorrow with about 10 clinicians here from the University of Utah and the University Orthopedic Center. Each clinician will meet with a student for about 10 to 15 minutes to work on this scoring for them.
“We've been doing concussion testing for years here at Judge,” Mr. Angelo said. “We were actually one of the first schools statewide to do concussion testing, using ImPACT scoring and several other programs, but we've decided not to use ImPACT anymore.”
ImPACT testing was done on computers where students were tested on how well they remembered certain signs and symbols. Mr. Angelo said that the school is moving away from the ImPACT testing that we’ve been using for the last seven years because the program wasn’t adjusting well academically for the students.
“For example, we’d have a student who struggled academically before the testing,” Mr. Angelo said, “but then we might have trouble having them get screened out. Some students would be red-lined by the ImPACT test, and it didn’t always adjust well when students were coming back from a concussion.”
The new tests will be more accurate.
“Quite a bit of research has been done on VOMS,” Craig Switzler, athletic trainer said on the day the testing began. “It's a protocol that's been well established. That's why we are utilizing it here.
“This will be the first year that we've implemented this specific concussion protocol,” Mr. Switzler continued. “Today is actually just getting a baseline. We’re finding how they are in a non-concussed state, so that if the student-athletes have the signs and symptoms of a concussion later, we can compare that to their baseline.”
Jennifer Zehner, athletic trainer at Judge, emphasized the positives of the new tests. “Every school’s own sports medicine staff can decide what they want to do testing-wise. So the SCAT5 and VOMS are actually used across the board in sports medicine as well as by athletic trainers. The SCAT5 is used a lot for actual evaluation when an injury occurs, specifically a head injury.”
“This is the first high school that we're utilizing within the University of Utah Health system sports medicine program,” Mr. Switzler said. “So we're implementing it right now in hopes that it will be implemented in other high schools.”
According to Mr. Angelo, the student-athletes are liking the new tests.
“Some of the sense I'm getting from just talking to students today about the testing is that they actually like the idea; it's something different. It's a new thing for them to look at a different aspect of their balance and to monitor their ability for eye movement, which we now know, is very significant in the recovery from any student that has a concussion.”
About 120 students participate in spring sports. Sixty to 70 students were tested on Wednesday, and the rest will be tested after school prior to spring sports.
