Head injuries and concussions are a hot topic among athletes, coaches and the sport community. BrainScope’s Ahead 300, a handheld point of care device that objectively and rapidly assesses mild head injury, is helping clinicians and others to gather data that will aid in head injury diagnosis. BrainScope announced this month that it is doing a limited launch to a select group that includes college and professional sports institutions.
The Ahead 300, which was cleared by the FDA last September, uses a disposable electrode sensor headset, signal processing, algorithms and machine learning to analyze the patient’s data. Generally, the Ahead 300 works to analyze patients with symptoms present that could indicate everything from structural brain injury to mild traumatic brain injury including concussions.
The device makes assessments of patients with mild symptoms that can help reduce costs and wait times associated with hospital visits and unneeded CT scans that expose them to radiation.
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Brainscope has already partnered with the NFL through the GE/NFL Head Health Initiative, which through grant support helped develop the company’s first commercial product that is scheduled to be shipped later in Q1. The company was awarded millions more in research contracts by the U.S. Department of Defense for the research and development of the system.
“We know the absence of such a capability in current medical practice is a great concern for clinicians as well as for head injured patients and their loved ones,” Michael Singer, the CEO of BrainScope said in a statement. “There is now available, for the first time, an FDA cleared medical device – the Ahead 300 – which can help the clinician objectively and rapidly assess and disposition patients, right at the point of care.”