Clinicians, athletic trainers, and coaches currently possess woefully inadequate tools to satisfactorily address widely recognized problems relating to the neuromechanical health and head injury crisis.

Present test methods, including neurocognitive tests, balance tests, and the like, simply fail to address the reality that injured athletes suffer symptoms from disruptions in multiple systems, resulting in diminished overall physical performance. Increased physical activity typically aggravates these symptoms. 

The patented TRAZER, the new generation of  baseline testing, represents a novel, holistic and objective approach to head injury management. It does so by mimicking game play to challenge and assess visual, vestibular, cognitive, neuromuscular/musculoskeletal and cardiorespiratory systems simultaneously, while gradually raising the heart rate to game levels. It records your performance capabilities (speed ,acceleration ,reaction time and distance travelled)  which can be retrieved  for comparative purposes if required  at a later date.

When a patient has a suspected underlying heart condition they have  a stress test to uncover potential underlying conditions that may otherwise go unnoticed.When a patient has a blood sugar problem or diabetes they check their blood  sugar level . When a patient has kidney or liver disease enzyme levels are evaluated to help gauge and diagnose disease,When an individual sustains a  suspected head injury before they  are deemed fit to return to play they too are desperately are in need of standardized  relevant objective qualitative and quantitative  testing .

What is not in the best interest of the recovering athletes welfare and safety is to put too much emphasis on their subjective reporting. We ask an athlete (even as young as age six or seven years old) under the guidance of their parent or team trainer to subjectively qualify symptoms and gauge their own recovery as they progress through the standard protocols. All along self governing  and proclaiming  when they feel fit to return to competition. When we consider that a second impact syndrome can have permanent devastating effects on the participant or even result in death, self reporting from athletes can not be relied upon.

The Trazer  can add a standardized format to the safe return to play model. An athlete would only be deemed fit to return when their post injury performance was comparable to their pre-injury capabilities You would have an accurate target to shoot for and can tailor your therapy to your specific deficiencies .  

This information obtained from your baseline test will allow  decision makers to make more accurate better informed decisions and can  be  added to the other criteria  they incorporate into their decision making process. This can serve to reduce stress on the athlete, parents, coaches and other decision makers. 

We can't send athletes back to competition without the ability to READ  a stimulus accurately in their visual field, REACT to it appropriately and to RESPOND to it in a timely fashion to protect themselves. These conditions are non negotiable and no other so called safe return to play assessment objectively addresses these basic necessities.We need to protect the athletes from individual tests that concentrate on one aspect of performance and wrongly attributing one as fit to return because they for example, remember their name or where they are or the score of the game.

Trazer  baseline testing is for all  athletes (individual or team sport) and will help reduce the potential for premature return to sport. 

Protecting athletes from preventable injuries .

Read React Respond  the minimum  necessary requirements for  your safe return.

I am proud to be part of a team that has introduced Trazer baseline testing to Canada. It is the first baseline testing system that has overcome the shortcomings of its predecessors and can offer assistance where it is desperately needed in the safe return to play from concussion model.

 For more information or a demonstration please refer to Span performance testing or Spanpt.com