Football.

(Ridell Sports) Riddell Sports has introduced its new Sideline Response System[TM] (SRS) with Head Impact Telemetry[TM] (HIT), the most complete method for the detection and management of head injuries ever developed, says the company. The Sideline Response System gives sideline personnel instantaneous information about player head impacts, which may prove better than player self-reporting, according to Riddell. Using accelerometers located inside the helmet, Riddell's Head Impact Telemetry system, developed with support from the National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research at the National Institutes of Health, measures the location, magnitude, duration and direction of acceleration of an athlete's head during games and practices. These accelerations are believed to be correlated to the incidence and severity of mild traumatic brain injury, including concussions, the company says. When the system detects a Sudden Impact Profile for a particular player, an alarm pager immediately alerts the medical and athletic training personnel giving them an important tool to identify in real time the presence and severity of head impacts. The Active Response Wizard function of the Sideline Assistant PDA prompts medical and training personnel to respond appropriately to head-impact incidents and guides them through proper sideline assessment tools and the best practices of continued injury management. The system logs the results and time-stamps the incident so that the staff can later compare the data received with video game footage to see how and why a hit occurred. The information provided can help the staff protect the athlete so he doesn't get re-injured and prevent the athlete from making mistakes on the field, Ridell says.

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