Nearly 4 million U.S. athletes suffer a concussion every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Cerner, a global leader in health care technology, today announced that NeuroLogix Technologies, a Cleveland Clinic spinoff, will integrate its C3Logix concussion management system with Cerner's HealtheAthlete® health management system. The collaboration will enable joint clients to manage athletic injuries and improve the recognition and treatment of concussions.
HealtheAthlete, a cloud-based sports medicine and athlete health management system, enables providers to document injury, rehabilitation, conditioning and health-related events that can be accessed from a computer or mobile device almost anywhere, anytime. HealtheAthlete also provides built-in tracking and analysis tools.
"We take a person-centric approach to health care delivery that spans the continuum to help ensure optimal care in any setting, which includes sports management," said Nate Hogan, general manager, HealtheAthlete, Cerner. "HealtheAthlete captures critical health data throughout the life of an injury, and our collaboration with C3Logix will help with the health and safety of athletes across high school, collegiate and professional settings."
According to the CDC, timely recognition and appropriate response is important in treating a mild traumatic brain injury, and health care providers can play a key role in helping to improve a patient's health outcomes through early diagnosis and management.
The C3Logix system, developed at Cleveland Clinic and commercialized by NeuroLogix Technologies, enables physicians, athletic trainers and other trained personnel to assess the neurologic domains impaired by a concussion. A series of tests are given to an athlete at the beginning of the season to create a baseline. These same tests are given again when the athlete is injured and used to determine the extent of the injury. C3Logix aggregates neurologic data over time that creates comparison visualizations that help trained medical practitioners determine the appropriate treatment plan for the concussed individual. C3Logix is also used by researchers to collect longitudinal data, year over year, to help improve the understanding and long-term implications of concussions.
"We have long needed to raise the bar in brain injury assessment, while leveling the playing field to provide better access to quality tools," said Jay Alberts, Ph.D., of Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute. "Integrating data into a single athlete record will keep care teams from fumbling through multiple systems, duplicating data entry or worrying about the risk of missing information."
NeuroLogix Technologies and Cerner share many joint clients who will benefit from the integration of the two tools.
"Easy access to analytical data is key for improving patient outcomes," said Frank Carruba, CEO, NeuroLogix Technologies. "Seamless access to information is recognized as a key benefit by our clients and is instrumental to the success of telemedicine and digital health care."
"We continue to push innovation to meet the needs of our clients," said Hogan. "Integrating concussion management information into HealtheAthlete will help improve the level of care provided to athletes, with a focus on creating better health outcomes."
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