The Dynamics of Concussion: Helmet Performance Assessment, Real-time Monitoring and Intelligent Diagnostics

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The proposed research program brings together my key areas of research on impact dynamics, inertial navigation, vital signs monitoring, intelligent diagnostic systems, and head impact and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), in particular, concussion. Concussion, also known as mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI), is the most common form of TBI in contact sports such as football and hockey, making Sports-related concussion about 20% of the total number of brain injuries that occurs each year in North America. However, it is a common problem witnessed in the elderly falling, car accidents, the military, the first responders and the construction and mining sectors. Despite it being a major mental health issue, it has only recently entered into the public awareness center stage. The Head Injury Prevention lab (HIP), which I established in 2009, has made pioneering studies on reduction of head injury during an impact in activities that require the user to wear a helmet. Our efforts have resulted in six Canadian and international patents, leading to the commercialization of an SFU startup company, Shield-X Technology Inc., in 2014. Test results from SFU and eight high school football teams across Canada and the US with close to 500 participants have confirmed that this technology, would enhance helmet performance, to reduce the number of reported concussions significantly (e.g., SFU football team went from an annual average of fourteen reported cases to four in its 2014 season). With the successful commercialization of this technology, our next research task is to address the research challenges in quantifying the dynamics of a concussion. To do so, I will start by helmet performance assessment, real-time monitoring, and intelligent diagnostics. In the next five years, my research program focuses on: 1) Establishing a Canadian helmet rating system for both linear and rotational impacts based on experimental lab tests of various helmets 2) Identifying concussion utilizing a real-time monitoring sensor suite 3) Defining rotational impact thresholds for the head injury and concussion for different helmets 4) Arriving at a wearable sensor suite with built-in intelligence showing impact location and the causing force magnitude to better assess the concussion thresholds  The proposed research program utilizes my expertise in impact dynamics, nonlinear dynamics, inertial navigation, sensors, and intelligent diagnostic systems. Since concussion and head injury research require medical expertise, I am also benefitting from close collaboration with Dr. Daniel Abram, CTO of Shield-X Technology, Dr. Faranak Farzan, a research chair on mental health at my department, and Dr. Philippe A. Souvestre, managing physician at the Neurokinetics, a Vancouver based concussion treatment clinic. The proposed research will sponsor three HQPs (two Ph.D. students, one MASc student, and three coop students per year) who will address different aspects of the project.