Soon, a mobile application for diagnosing concussion in children will be developed
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Specialists representing the University of Washington are working to create a unique application for mobile devices. Thanks to this application, it will be possible to determine the presence of concussion and other head injuries in children.
Most children, when they learn to walk or even crawl, often fall and receive varying degrees of injury. Sometimes the severity of the injury can be determined by characteristic features. For example, if a child is dizzy and has a headache, it makes him vomit, vomiting occurs, if the baby loses consciousness at the time of the fall, then it is possible to state with certainty concussion of the brain.
Parents of very young children can not always appreciate the severity of a child's trauma, because a kid can not explain how he fell and what worries him. In such a situation, a consultation of highly specialized children's specialists will be required: a neurologist and traumatologist. If the doctor deems necessary, he will prescribe auxiliary diagnostic procedures - for example, an x-ray or neurosonography.
Difficulty in diagnosis is also present in school-age children. It's no secret that schoolchildren run and jump not only in physical education, but also at changes, and after school. It is unlikely that parents will be able to monitor their behavior. A schoolboy can get a head injury almost anywhere - and not always he will say about this trauma to adults. Most often the child strikes, rises and goes on.
To protect parents from unnecessary worries and simplify diagnostics, experts decided to create a mobile application PupilScreen, capable of detecting violations in children's reaction to a light stimulus. The application uses a video camera built into the smartphone and an in-depth surveillance program that works similar to artificial intelligence, and detects changes that are not available to the ordinary human eye.
Extensive clinical testing for the application will be launched this fall. The program will be submitted for evaluation to sports coaches, ambulance doctors, teachers. Scientists seek to gather as much information about the capabilities of the application, as well as about the changes that can accompany atypical cases of brain injury.
Experts assume that mass access to the PupilScreen application will be open in the next two years.
The concussion of the brain is the most common diagnosis that children's traumatologists put. The increased rate of injuries is due to the high motor activity of children, their restlessness and curiosity. All these qualities are present in the child along with insufficient motor skills, imperfect motor coordination, reassessment of their capabilities. In this case, the greatest number of injuries are children of school age - it is more than 45%.
Schoolchildren tend to hide injuries for various reasons, so creating a universally available diagnostic application is very important. Experts already predict in advance the special popularity and relevance of this program.
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