ABOUT – awarewear

In 2013 a young rugby player died from Second Impact Syndrome (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6536829/ )– this is when a first head impact resulting in a concussion goes unnoticed, unreported and therefore untreated, and a second head impact occurs within a few days of the first, thus causing more brain swelling and damage.

It is estimated that a sports related brain impact occurs every 13 seconds, (we anticipate this rising once we go back to training and games after Covid 19) and over 50% will go unnoticed, unreported, untreated and untracked.

These injuries can cause lifelong problems, they can lead to anger issues, depression, drug abuse, suicide and death.

Bill 193- https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-41/session-2/bill-193 exists in Ontario, whereby the Ontario government created legislation to ensure any noticed brain impact are to be recorded and follow a defined process before an athlete can return to the sport.

Our Story

To this end, we have spent the past fewyears researching and developing the intelibean and brain impact tracking system.

Not everyone is on board with a solution for unnoticed brain impacts, and the conversation around concussion are complicated and often emotive.

There are so many nuances to brain impacts, like, the long term effects, losing a star player, potential careers, and peer pressure.

There are advocates that would have us wrap our athletes in cotton wool and remain on the couch, and there are those, who would prefer to bury their heads in the sand and believe TBI (traumatic brain injury) does not exist.

Head impacts can only be diagnosed by a medical practitioner. It is not a “disease”, like mumps, or measles, but rather a symptom i.e ringing in the ears, light sensitivity, unable to sleep, nausea… there are 22 known and recognized concussion symptoms, of which any one or more can deliver a concussion diagnosis.

Our research tells us, that there is no “one size fits all” concussion, diagnosis or treatment, and helmets, although mandatory in many sport, will stop a cut or a gash, but will not stop the brain from moving in the skull, hitting and vibrating in the skull.

Our decision was therefore not to design an impact tracking solution that would fit into a helmet, but rather something that would attach directly to the skin.

Our goal to get all sports to mandate the use of a head impact alerting and tracking solution.fewfew