Traumatic concussions can produce a variety of symptoms, but there’s no way to objectively diagnose their impact, particularly mild cases. SyncThink is a Silicon Valley company that has developed a technology that may become a standard way of care to diagnose concussions.
The FDA has granted Breakthrough Device Designation to the company’s EYE-SYNC system, which uses a pair of virtual reality goggles outfitted with eye trackers to assess whether an individual is experiencing a concussion. It has been known that seriously concussed individuals experience difficulty tracking objects in their field of view. This is relatively easy to tell in acute cases, but when less apparent, unusual eye movements are very difficult to gauge with the naked eye.
The EYE-SYNC system involves the user following the movements of a spot moving around a circle. The system tracks how the eyes perform the task and provides an easy to read chart of the eye activity. We tried this for ourselves a few years ago while learning more from Dr. Jamshid Ghajar, one of the inventors of the system.
Three years ago, EYE-SYNC was given clearance by the FDA for “recording, viewing, and analyzing eye movements in support of identifying visual tracking impairment in human subjects,” but the new designation may lead to a true diagnostic product that is considered objective by neurologists.
Flashback: How Stanford Uses Eye-Tracking Virtual Reality Headset to Detect Concussions in Athletes…; EYE-SYNC Virtual Reality Eye Tracker to Assess Concussions Gets U.S. Clearance…; Training Athletes’ Dynamic Vision with System Originally Designed to Detect Brain Injuries…
Product page: EYE-SYNC…
Via: SyncThink…