Sideline ImPACT

ImPACT Applications has developed a program designed to be used on a hand held device called Sideline ImPACT.

Currently, Sideline ImPACT is available on Palm Pilot as well as Pocket PC.

Sideline ImPACT was developed to provide a standardized format for the collection of important information regarding the nature and severity of the injury. Sideline ImPACT is also a highly portable injury tracking tool that contains information regarding the athletes past concussion history and performance on past ImPACT evaluations. Finally, Sideline ImPACT leads the medical professional through a brief mental status examination that provides diagnostic information regarding the injury. Sideline ImPACT is not a substitute for neuropsychological testing programs such as ImPACT and should not be used in and of itself to make return-to-play decisions. Based on the Vienna concussion management guidelines, we do not recommend returning an athlete to play during the contest in which he or she was injured.

Sideline ImPACT utilizes a straight-forward series of pull-down screens that requires minimal technical expertise. In fact, anyone who can use palm based programs such as a daily calendar can reliably use Sideline ImPACT. The actual screens that make up the Sideline ImPACT program are presented below.

General Information

Concussion History: Each of the athlete's concussions are listed by date of injury, as initially recorded by the ATC or physician.
Concussion Details: When an athlete's record is requested, the user has the flexibility to display specific information regarding past injuries such as signs and symptoms present at the time of injury, details regarding the concussion and past ImPACT scores.
On-Field Cognitive Testing: The on-field evaluation screens of Sideline ImPACT provide valuable information that can be used, in combination with other diagnostic information to track the initial injury and the recovery of the athlete. The word memory sideline test provides an initial evaluation of the athlete's ability to learn and retain five words over three successive trials. The word list is repeated to the athlete and his or her recall of the list is entered by a simple touch of the screen following each trial. This screen collects information regarding the orientation status of the athlete as well as providing information about his or her attentional capacity.
Following the presentation of the word list at the beginning of the test and the completion of other injury tracking screens, the athlete should be checked for recall of the 5 word list. This provides an indication of the retention of newly learned information (short-term memory) over a relatively brief, 5 minute time span.
Total Score: Sideline ImPACT provides a total score that will allow the medical professional or athletic trainer to correlate initial sideline signs and symptoms with other evaluation results such as ImPACT. As noted earlier we do not recommend use of this score as a "return to play" indicator assigns and symptoms following concussion may not be evident immediately following injury and may evolve over time. This information does provide the opportunity to track the athlete's overall status across different injuries.
Signs and Symptoms Evaluation: Allows on-field evaluation and documentation of signs and symptoms.
Document Signs and Symptoms Observed by the Staff:
Document Symptoms reported by the athlete.
Concussion Details: Documents important on-field details of injury. The concussion details screen provides information regarding the observed site of the blow to the head, if known or witnessed. This information may be useful in research studies and may also provide valuable clinical information regarding the type of blow to the head experienced by the athlete. Symptoms as evaluated on the Sideline: Composite Scores: The Composite Summary screen provides a listing of the composite scores, listed by original date of testing. Test scores are presented for both baseline and post-concussion evaluations. This allows the clinician to quickly retrieve past test scores in "real time". Therefore, if an athlete has a history of past injury, the medical professional is able to evaluate the athlete's initial baseline scores and his or her past recovery patterns, while still on the field. This information may be very useful, particularly when the athlete in question has a history of multiple injuries.

To order Sideline ImPACT, go to our Ordering Software Page.

  PDF version of the Sideline Cards