Ascension’s Our Lady of the Lake Physician Group donated $3,350 to fund sideline concussion testing for all four Ascension public high schools.
The initiative was led by Dr. Travis Currie, who serves as the athletic medical director for Ascension Parish, and covers multiple sports including basketball, baseball, cheer, football, soccer and volleyball.
“Having these types of tests for some athletes available is one thing we can do to help manage student athletes and their safety,” said Currie. “By having a baseline to compare, we can more quickly detect if an athlete is suffering from a concussion so they can receive the appropriate treatment in a timely manner.”
The schools benefiting from this testing are Donaldsonville, Dutchtown, East Ascension and St. Amant high schools.
“Having the King-Devick test is a great tool for us, it allows us to gain important information to make sound decisions for athletes that may have suffered a concussion,” said St. Amant High athletic trainer Scott Arceneaux, who also is past president of the Louisiana Athletic Trainer Association and serves on the District 9 Executive Board of the National Athletic Training Association. “We are fortunate to have health care partners like OLOL and the Baton Rouge Orthopaedic Clinic Foundation who invest in the care of our student-athletes.”
The King-Devick Test is a two-minute rapid number naming assessment in which an individual quickly reads aloud single-digit numbers and evaluates impairments of eye movements, attention, and language function. Peer-reviewed research has shown that adding a vision-based performance measure to cognitive and balance testing enhances the detection capabilities of current sideline concussion assessment. For information about the testing tool, visit https://kingdevicktest.com/products/sideline-concussion-screening/.
“Having the right tools to aid in the assessment of a concussion is paramount to the overall outcome for the athlete,” said Arceneaux.
