How can schools get a baseline testing program started ?

In general schools may wish to start with a single team to introduce ImPACT to their athletes.  By introducing one team at a time, students and their parents come to understand the value of having baseline testing.  In many cases, schools will add a small testing fee when students sign up for their sport.  In other cases, school booster associations have stepped up and paid the license fee so that ImPACT baseline testing can be started.  At one central Massachusetts High School a student athlete completed her senior project on the effects of concussion and raised over $ 3000 toward the fees for baseline testing for through the 2011 season.  Finally, the test is available on-line at this website for individuals who wish to have documented baseline testing for a reasonable fee. 

School representatives can contact Dr. Michael Sefton for individual consultation about starting a baseline testing program.  In Massachusetts, the state legislature is working on a mandatory baseline testing law.  It is recommended by the NCAA that athletes have some preseason measure of cognitive functioning before they compete.  The ImPACT test is inexpensive, easy to take and many athletes enjoy the challenge.  There is no better feeling than to have a quantifiable measure of an athlete's baseline cognitive functioning.  The test is valid for 2-3 seasons.   Baseline testing is available using the link below.  There is a fee for taking the baseline test.

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ImPACT™
ImPACT™ (Immediate Post-concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing) was developed over the past decade by sports concussion researchers Mark Lovell, Ph.D., Michael Collins, Ph.D., and Joseph Maroon, M.D. at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Sports Medicine Concussion Program. It is the first and most widely used computerized evaluation system to objectively assess the effects and severity of concussion and injury recovery progress and help determine the management of the return to contact sports following a concussion.