HeadSmart Labs, a Healy Ventures LLC company, has announced its official launch to advance research methods that will aid in the prevention of head and neck injuries sustained by athletes who wear helmets during collision sports, according to a HeadSmart Labs news release. The new lab will develop procedures, products, and testing devices designed to reduce concussions in sports by rethinking helmet testing. HeadSmart Labs is led by Thomas Healy and is partnering with other researchers from the Pittsburgh area.
The research will focus on reducing impact forces transferred to the head by understanding how helmets are and should be worn, promoting additional standards for helmets, and determining the optimum pressures at which helmets should be inflated, as indicated on the HeadSmart Labs news release. The lab will also help establish new benchmarks for when a helmet should be replaced because it no longer maintains its protective capabilities.
The new lab will also work to gain insight into the kinds of collisions and impacts that cause concussions, create immediate solutions that will use athletes’ existing equipment, and develop recommendations and products to make protective equipment more effective, as noted on the HeadSmart Labs news release.
Healy says, “Having played competitive football for 16 years, I have seen firsthand the effect concussions can have on individual players and teams. I have always had a passion for finding ways to make the game safer. HeadSmart Labs is dedicated to improving the safety of sports helmets and reducing the frequency and severity of head and neck injuries sustained by athletes.”
HeadSmart Labs will soon begin testing with the CMU football team.
Source: HeadSmart Labs
