HIghMark believes in education and broad stakeholder engagement as a means of preventing Concussion and mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). The field of mTBI is moving and evolving ra[idly. Consequently, youth fitness programs, and their leadership, are being challenged to match this pace with respect to knowledge dissemination to all stakeholders of organized sport. For example, the view a young athlete may take on the effects of collision in sport, may differ from the perspective of a parent, coach, trainer, referee, or administrator. HighMark believes that all participants in physical activities should be informed about mTBI in a way that is specific to their perspective.

As such, Highmark has developed educational modules and programs that speak to all the stakeholders of youth sports helps ensure shared understanding of incidents, along with the potential short and long-term consequences of certain decisions. HighMark actively works with client organizations to develop optimal communication strategies when sharing knowledge and information as relates to collision and concussion medicine. These include traditional approaches (ie educational seminars, speaking engagements), but also expand to leverage the power of the social network, and mobile computing. Through HighMark’s proprietary software, Synapgen we are able to interface with students, parents, teachers in a secure peer-2-peer network. Furthermore, Synapgen can customize and tailor the information that is disseminated, so that each

stakeholder group is getting information that is relevant and important to them. Evidence and experience suggest that this approach results in greater student/player-coach/trainer engagement. This leads to informed decision making by all individuals involved in the sport.

HighMark is proud of the work it is doing with it’s adolescent-sports outreach programs. By providing greater clarity around both injury assessment, and safe return to play, we believe we can maximize the enjoyment that comes from competitive sport, while minimizing the harm associated with collision, and potentially concussive trauma.

Finally, unlike traditional outreach educational programs, HighMark seeks to both quantify the impact of the program, and measure the success based upon outcomes, including:

  • harm reduction
  • mTBI reduction rates
  • return to play times

Engaging HighMark’s educational programs provides your institution with both a committed partner and resource. Together we can make play safe.