VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – If you’ve ever taken a hit to the head while playing a sport, you know how challenging it can be trying to figure out when to safely return.
With concussions now in focus, BC Hockey is working to make that process easier for players in this province.
It has linked up with HeadCheck Health, a company that offers a mobile app which can be used to test players for concussions rink side.
It can also be used to then manage that athlete’s return in the weeks and months following a head injury.
“Coaches and our on-ice staff at the minor hockey association level are trained in recognizing concussion,” Barry Petrachenko, BC Hockey’s chief executive says. “This app will allow them a little bit more of an ability to test to see if a concussion has taken place.”
He says the league is doing what it can to keep up and learn more about concussions. That includes developing educational tools for staff.
“Hockey Canada has been instrumental in leading that and in the awareness of what contacts might end up in a concussion injury, but also in the teaching of tactics within the game that avoid concussions.”
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The tool will be available for teams ranging from Junior A, right down to minor hockey associations.
“There’s a lot of emotion involved, it’s a difficult injuries to see and of course players, parents, coaches, they all have other influences on them let’s say as far as wanting to return to play and this gives us a little bit more of a standardization to that,” Petrachenko adds.
Logging information related to concussions will help ensure proper protocols are followed in order to help the athlete get back out onto the ice, he says.
“Having that in place is important.”
The app has been used in other leagues and within BC before.
BC Hockey requires a player who has suffered a concussion to be assessed by a medical professional, who then submits a letter before they are allowed back to play.
Petrachenko says the new program will start this season.
-With files from John Ackermann
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