Utah clinic using new game-changing concussion diagnostic device

LEHI — As football season approaches, a common and serious injury within the sport comes back into the spotlight: concussions.

According to the CDC, about 3.8 million sports-related concussions occur each year in the United States. Since current concussion testing requires a baseline, athletes sometimes find a way to cheat the system.

However, a new device, the EyeBOX, is the first FDA-approved technology that doesn’t require a baseline test to diagnose a concussion.

“There’s nothing like this out in the market right now,” said Dr. Kenneth Oliver, a chiropractic neurologist at the Neuro Clinic in Lehi.

The Neuro Clinic was the first clinic in Utah to implement the new technology.

Here’s how it works: the device has a camera that tracks your eye movements while you watch a movie clip in a small box that moves around the screen. The test takes about four to five minutes in total. Then, the device immediately generates the results.

“It saves me a ton of time from sitting down and having to go through all the data,” Oliver said.

Oliver said this cutting-edge technology is a game changer for concussion diagnosis.

“It’s an exciting piece of equipment that I think a lot of physicians that practice in the realm that I do are really going to be excited about,” he said. “Just streamlining, making sure that we’re getting the answers that we’re looking for, and confidently telling patients that they actually have a concussion when they do, or telling patients they don’t have a concussion when they think they might.”

Oliver also said that since the EyeBOX device is portable, patients can receive care outside of the clinic, which means that football players can receive a fast concussion diagnosis on the sidelines of a game.

“We can unplug it and go wherever we need to,” he said. “It’s effective and it works.”