CBS Baltimore: New Tool Takes On Early Detection Of Brain Injuries

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — When it comes to look­ing for the first signs of con­cus­sion or oth­er brain injuries, a new tool is avail­able from a Mary­land com­pa­ny — and it’s being backed by the NFL and the Depart­ment of Defense.

The device, called Brain­Scope, comes in two parts. It includes a dis­pos­able elec­trode head­set, and a mil­i­tary-grade smart­phone with spe­cial­ized software.

The tool is designed to give an objec­tive appraisal of pos­si­ble brain injury as ear­ly as pos­si­ble after an accident:

“So much of brain injury assess­ment is sub­jec­tive, and so what we are adding is objec­tiv­i­ty. You’re lit­er­al­ly read­ing the brain elec­toral activ­i­ty of the patient,” says Michael Singer, CEO of BrainScope.

The soft­ware com­pares activ­i­ties of an unin­jured brain, like relax­ing, with the read­ings of some­one who suf­fered a concussion.

It also com­pares cog­ni­tive func­tions with tests tak­en by the patient, which could lead to a CT scan.

“We run mul­ti­ple tests and that aggre­ga­tion is what is then used by the clin­i­cians for them to make a diag­no­sis,” says Singer.

Sup­port­ers of Bethes­da-based Brain­Scope include the mil­i­tary, with the defense depart­ment pro­vid­ing fund­ing, as well as the NFL, where brain injuries to play­ers have gone from lock­er room secret to full-blown headlines:

The porta­bil­i­ty of Brain­Scope means ver­sa­til­i­ty with FDA approval.

“It’s meant to be any­where a head injury might occur, so our mar­kets are places like urgent care cen­ters, emer­gency room depart­ments in hos­pi­tals, the mil­i­tary, uni­ver­si­ties,” says Singer.

Watch the com­plete seg­ment on CBS Bal­ti­more.