Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts found himself in a situation familiar to athletes at every level: he felt fine, but medical personnel still needed to complete a concussion evaluation before allowing him to return.
After taking a late hit against the Chicago Bears, Hurts was removed from the game for evaluation. He was eventually cleared to return, but not before backup quarterback Andy Dalton had entered the game.
Afterward, Hurts said he understood there was a process to follow but acknowledged, “Obviously, wish we could have expedited things.” Bleeding Green Nation
It's an interesting question for sports medicine.
Can concussion evaluation become more efficient without sacrificing the information clinicians need to make appropriate decisions?
The answer isn't simply getting an athlete back into competition faster.
Concussion assessment requires clinical judgment, and no single test should determine whether an athlete has sustained a concussion or is ready to return. The NFL's sideline assessment process incorporates multiple components, including symptoms, neurological examination, cognitive evaluation and balance assessment. NFL
But technology is changing how quickly clinicians can gather some of that information.
Sway Concussion, for example, brings balance and cognitive testing, symptom tracking, VOMS and other assessment tools onto a mobile device. Sway says its sideline screenings can be completed in under five minutes, with results immediately available for comparison against an athlete's baseline and normative data. Sway Concussion
That doesn't mean Sway Concussion would have changed what happened with Hurts.
We don't know what specific components of his evaluation accounted for the time he spent out of the game, and Sway would not replace the NFL's required concussion protocol.
But the situation does illustrate a larger challenge Athletic Trainers and other sports medicine professionals face every week.
When a possible concussion happens during competition, clinicians need good information, and they often need it quickly.
That's an important distinction.
Mobile assessment technology isn't valuable because it can help an athlete get back into a game sooner. It's valuable when it can help a clinician gather objective information efficiently, compare post-injury performance with an established baseline, and add that information to the larger clinical picture.
Sometimes those results may support a return to play.
Sometimes they may provide another reason to keep an athlete out.
Either way, the decision still belongs to the healthcare professional.
Hurts' experience happened on one of the biggest stages in sports, with an NFL medical team and a standardized league protocol.
But it raises a question that's just as relevant on a high school or college sideline:
If an Athletic Trainer needs objective concussion assessment data in the middle of a game, how quickly can they get it, without compromising the evaluation?
That's a question worth asking as concussion assessment technology continues to evolve.