Brain Injury Evaluation in Real-Time of Sports Trauma (BIERST)
Concussions and other Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs) are a major problem in sports today and one of the leading causes of death in athletic contests. The primary obstacle in combating these injuries is the difficulty in understanding their cause. In a pilot project, the CIB in conjunction with Simbex and the athletic department will outfit VT football helmets with wireless accelerometer arrays to capture and record the acceleration seen by the head in injurious and non-injurious collisions so that the cause of concussions can be better understood and treated. Additional research will clarify the amount and direction of acceleration required to cause a concussion, and lead to better countermeasures from both medicine and equipment engineering.
Figure: Football helmet equipped with SIMBEX HITS™ system.
Virginia Tech / Wake Forest University Center for Injury Biomechanics