New App Assesses Hard Knocks

The rapidly expanding library of health-related smartphone and tablet apps now includes a tool for diagnosing concussions suffered by children who play athletics.

Creators of the Concussion Recognition & Response application designed it to aid parents and youth sports coaches, according to a news release by Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Gerard Gioia, chief neuropsychologist at the hospital, developed the application with Jason Mihalik of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The app guides parents and coaches through basic questions about what they observe and what the injured child reports. The program determines whether a child likely suffered a concussion and how to respond. Information can immediately be emailed to the child's parents and physicians.

"This new technology supports timely concussion recognition and response, which is essential in deciding if a young athlete needs to come off the field of practice or play," Gioia says. "It also makes it possible to alert physicians with essential injury information, (and) soon will have an office-based application for tracking injured patients."

He says a full suite of concussion assessment and treatment applications is in the works.