EDINA, Minn. — If your kids play any kind of sports, you know there's a chance that they might get hurt.
Concussions, for example, are pretty common. What's worse, is a lot of them go unnoticed.
The Minnesota-based company, Prevent Biometrics, says that every year in the United States, there are about 3.8 million sports concussions and more than 50% go undiagnosed. That can lead to delayed recovery and long-term effects.
To combat that, it built a first-of-its-kind wearable mouthguard that measures head impacts.
"You want to worry about the big ones and a lot of them, those are the two drivers of our business," said Prevent Biometrics CEO Mike Schogren.
The device was first invented about a decade ago. Now, it's equipped with such new, and smaller technology, its data is so precise that thousands of people are wearing them from paratroopers in the military to World Rugby players to better diagnose concussions.
"We actually track the movement of your head, how fast it moves, how fast it accelerates and we can put it into a model," said Schogren. "They use our data now to identify a person on the field, they then take that person off if they take a major impact and do an impact assessment."
All of the information can easily be analyzed and stored in the device's app.
The Tonka Football Association was also one of the only local groups that helped to test the technology a couple of years ago. The group's director, Tony Wixo, said it included athletes from fifth to eighth grade.
"We knew that if we could demonstrate a safe program, our program would continue to grow," said Wixo, whose group had already started implementing changes to keep kids safe.
For example, nowadays, players start weightlifting sooner, they keep their heads out of tackling and equipment is upgraded every two years. In the last few years, about 200 more students have signed up to play football.
"It's not subjective, it's totally objective data, that what we're seeing and training is working," said Wixo. "And if there was a concussion, they have to have a doctor's slip before they come back to play."
Right now, Prevent Biometrics doesn't sell the mouth guards individually; instead, it focuses on the military and leagues and hopes to one day also work with the NFL.
"It'll take years to understand the long-term implications, but every day our data will help," said Schogren.
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