| Hokies, helmets
and HITS
by
Joshua Covington
For Virginia Business
February 2004
Even
football players have homework and, as the Virginia
Tech football team learned last season, some assignments
can really go to your head. The Blacksburg team served
as a test subject for a New Hampshire-based company
that is researching head injuries suffered by athletes.
Simbex, an international company that researches injury
prevention and rehabilitation products, developed the
Head Impact Telemetry System, or HITS, specifically
to study head injuries. It involves placing a series
of sensors in the helmet or pads of an athlete. When
the athlete suffers a potentially damaging hit, the
sensors send information on the impact to staff on the
sidelines who can instantly see the force, location
and duration of the blow. The on-field staff then uses
that information to check the health of the player and
collect data for further collision research.
After working on the system for more than two years,
Simbex needed the help of a winning football team to
further the study. That’s where the Virginia Tech
Hokies came in. This season, eight players from the
burgundy and orange donned HITS helmets, each containing
six impact sensors and costing $2,000 a pop. By working
exclusively with Tech’s team, Simbex hopes to
gather information on what types of impact cause concussions
and which positions suffer the most head trauma in hopes
that safer equipment can be made to protect athletes.
“It has been a very helpful relationship,”
says Simbex project manager Jeff Chu.
The project, funded in this state by Virginia Tech and
the Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine, so far
seems fruitful. Researchers are dedicated to their goal
of significantly reducing sports related head trauma.
Though no definite conclusions have yet been reached,
head team physician for Virginia Tech, Dr. P. Gunnar
Brolinson, says the team has been “very pleased”
with the data collected thus far, which immediately
shows which impacts are potentially injurious and which
aren’t.
Simbex and Virginia Tech hope to continue their alliance
next year while Simbex looks to eventually work with
automotive manufacturers and the military. While the
joint venture won’t give the Hokies an advantage
over the competition on the field, it does further promote
Tech as a player in sports medicine technology.
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