The following is an excerpt from a story about research involving Wichita State University related to a phone app that could detect concussions. The story appeared in the Feb. 2 issue of The Wichita Eagle.
An entrepreneur with close ties to Wichita State University has developed an iPhone application that researchers say could revolutionize how a key symptom of concussions can be quickly and accurately detected within minutes.
The “Sway Balance” app, developed by WSU alumnus Chase Curtiss of Tulsa has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. It was tested for two years in Wichita, both at WSU and among hundreds of athletes at Wichita East and Andover Central high schools, and in schools in Oklahoma and California.
What Curtiss did, said Jeremy Patterson, the WSU scientist who studied and tested it, was develop a cheap, fast, accurate tool that trainers and other health care specialists have never had before. It gathers measurable evidence in moments, showing that a person has probably suffered a concussion.