Minds Matter Concussion Program Research Overview

Our concussion research focuses on rigorously describing concussion across the pediatric age range and clinical settings, providing data and methods to develop engineering and behavioral prevention strategies, and improving diagnostic tools and recovery management. Through these efforts, our research can advance targeted interventions to prevent concussion and optimize treatment to shorten recovery time and reduce long-term poor outcomes.

Here are several notable highlights from our research:

• In collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Minds Matter team leveraged CHOP's Electronic Health Record system to expand concussion surveillance research, create the Minds Matter Concussion Registry and improve how clinicians manage concussion in children and adolescents
• The Minds Matter team is improving player safety by providing new protocols for evaluating head impact sensors to minimize false positives before using the data for research and injury prevention strategies.
• Minds Matter is collaborating with the University at Buffalo and Boston Children's Hospital to investigate if a heart rate-targeted prescription of aerobic exercise in adolescents with a recent sport-related concussion improves time to recovery compared to non-aerobic stretching activities.
• Research from the Minds Matter team found pupillary light reflex (PLR) may be an objective way to potentially identify sports-related concussions in adolescents quickly. This advances diagnosis and recovery because PLR metrics are measured via an automated hand-held device that may provide future utility in the objective diagnosis of concussion in the sports setting and in monitoring recovery.
• Minds Matter researchers found that clinical measures of balance perform as well as, if not better than, device-based measures in distinguishing concussed patients. This improves diagnosis because the clinical test for balance is quick, easy to learn and implement, and widely applicable to a variety of settings.