Setting Up a Concussion Protocol for All Student-Athletes

Getting the Whole District on the Same Page

Leander ISD has a “Concussion Oversight Team” consisting of athletic trainers at each school and local physicians. They work together to create and oversee the district-wide concussion protocol. They also work closely with school nurses who act as a liaison between academics and athletics. The school nurses are responsible for communicating with teachers about physical and/or academic accommodations a student may need based on the guidance of the point person managing the student’s head injury.

Using ImPACT For Students’ Successful Return To Life

Leander ISD added ImPACT to their concussion care toolbox in order to give concussion care team members a more complete picture of athletes’ head injuries to help not only return them to play, but return them to learn as well.

At first, Leander ISD only baseline tested contact sports, but after seeing concussions happen in non-contact sports such as cross-country and even non-athletic activities, and getting feedback from parents of non-contact athletes, they quickly shifted their model to baseline test all student-athletes.

Leveraging the Large Network of ImPACT-Credentialed Providers

A baseline test is only beneficial when the results are in the hands of physicians who are highly-skilled in interpreting the results and using them to guide return to activity decisions. ImPACT stood out to them amongst competitors because physicians in their area were already using it for post-injury testing and follow up care. Their students are able to take advantage of more than 559 ImPACT-credentialed healthcare providers in the Leander area who are specially-trained in concussion assessment and rehab.

“It’s important to have physicians that are able to utilize ImPACT to its fullest. We can administer ImPACT and send results to a physician, but if they have no training in interpreting the clinical reports, it is really worthless.”

Streamlining Baseline Testing

Leander ISD typically baseline tests athletes at the end of Spring semester so they’re ready to start practice right away in the Fall. Due to a country-wide stay at home order that shifted education to completely remote, they did not get the chance to conduct group baseline testing like they normally would. At this point, Leander ISD took advantage of FDA-cleared, at-home ImPACT baseline testing, so athletes would still be ready to start practice as soon as athletics resumed.

They found that distributing unique testing links in the Customer Center was much more streamlined than the traditional way of administering group testing. It also allowed them to easily track who had completed their test already and who needed to be reminded.

“I like that this feature gives us more visibility into the status of the test links we’ve sent. We can tell which kids have actually redeemed their links and pull up their clinical reports all in one place.”

One challenge Leander ISD previously had with group baseline testing was having enough time in a class period to get through test administration. While the test itself only takes 20 minutes, they’d spend quite a bit of time on pre-test administration including walking students through accessing their test. Leander ISD envisions a much more streamlined and efficient process using the Customer Center feature to generate and distribute unique test codes to students prior to their group testing appointment. This will save time usually spent on pre-administration and allow them to schedule group baseline testing in more efficient blocks.