Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Doug King: Sports Injury Research Specialist on the new portable brain scanner to detect concussions
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Could this be the end of concussions as we know it?
- 0:03Speaker 1: A new portable med tech device from the company Neurochech
- 0:07Speaker 1: claims it has the ability to diagnose concussions on the
- 0:09Speaker 1: sideline in just two minutes. Doctor Doug King is a
- 0:13Speaker 1: sports injury research specialist and he's with me now. Good morning, Doug,
- 0:16Speaker 1: Thanks for your time.
- 0:17Speaker 2: Good morning.
- 0:18Speaker 1: Okay, do you think this is legit?
- 0:22Speaker 2: I think that the concept of legit the research backing
- 0:26Speaker 2: it isn't.
- 0:27Speaker 1: Okay. So this tech has been approved by the FDA
- 0:30Speaker 1: in America. If their stamp isn't good enough, why would
- 0:34Speaker 1: that be?
- 0:35Speaker 2: The FDA says that it's not going to hurt you.
- 0:39Speaker 2: It doesn't say that it's been researched, and it doesn't
- 0:42Speaker 2: say it's been validated.
- 0:44Speaker 1: How easy is it for a human to detect concussion
- 0:47Speaker 1: on a sideline.
- 0:49Speaker 2: It's not. It's one of the most complex things you
- 0:53Speaker 2: can try and detect. People that have never had a
- 0:56Speaker 2: concussion don't even know they've actually suffering the symptoms.
- 0:59Speaker 1: So what do we need tech to do? How would
- 1:02Speaker 1: this particularly? How does this claim to work?
- 1:06Speaker 2: This is claiming to work that it uses a signal
- 1:09Speaker 2: that is sent through to the eyes and detect at
- 1:12Speaker 2: the back of the head what you do with an EEG.
- 1:15Speaker 2: The problem is that the research that was done out
- 1:17Speaker 2: of Waka University last year by a PhD student identify
- 1:21Speaker 2: that and I quote, no evidence was found to support
- 1:24Speaker 2: neurocheck's use in the assessment or management for concussion in
- 1:28Speaker 2: rugby athletes.
- 1:30Speaker 1: Okay, So we really do just need to stick with
- 1:33Speaker 1: the human plan at the moment.
- 1:36Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, the science is there, the concept is
- 1:40Speaker 2: in there. It's just that we haven't got to that
- 1:42Speaker 2: point yet.
- 1:43Speaker 1: So it could be realistic at some point in.
- 1:45Speaker 2: The future most definitely, but as it currently stands, no, okay.
- 1:50Speaker 1: Is there aside from what we're currently doing. If this
- 1:53Speaker 1: isn't the solution to solving a you know, this increase
- 1:56Speaker 1: in concussion injuries, we're seeing what else could be.
- 2:00Speaker 2: Or they're doing blood tests. At the moment, we've just
- 2:03Speaker 2: commenced that through the hospital here in the Hut and
- 2:06Speaker 2: through aut University, and we're looking to see whether that
- 2:10Speaker 2: is viable. I mean, there's a lot of stuff going
- 2:12Speaker 2: on worldwide to look at how we can detect it
- 2:15Speaker 2: other than someone coming up and saying I think they
- 2:17Speaker 2: have a concussion. So the work is going on. We're
- 2:21Speaker 2: just not at the finish line yet to say yes,
- 2:24Speaker 2: this is it.
- 2:25Speaker 1: SONIW Dylan Rugby says that they'll proceed with caution using
- 2:28Speaker 1: this tech. Should they not at least give it a
- 2:31Speaker 1: go or do you think it's waste of time?
- 2:34Speaker 2: Well, if they're going to proceive a caution, then I
- 2:36Speaker 2: will be asking what research they've seen or what research
- 2:39Speaker 2: they're going to do, because I think too, based on
- 2:43Speaker 2: searching through all the databases that I did last night,
- 2:47Speaker 2: there wasn't anything published talking specifically of this technology that
- 2:53Speaker 2: is specific to a neurocheck.
- 2:56Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your thoughts, Doug, appreciate that. Well,
- 2:58Speaker 1: there we go. I thought that was going to be
- 2:59Speaker 1: a winner. Maybe not quite yet, but hopefully sometimes near
- 3:02Speaker 1: in the future.
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