Another Tool in the Urgent Care Arsenal for Diagnosing Concussion

One of the challenges of assessing patients for concussion in the urgent care center is that, most often, the examining clinician has had no previous contact with a given patient; there’s no baseline to compare their current condition against. A new piece published in the Journal of the American Medical Association brings news of a new tool that diminishes the importance of a baseline for patient who may have sustained a concussion, however. EyeBox, approved for use in both children and adults, tracks a patient’s eye movement as they watch a 4-minute video that moves clockwise around a computer monitor. Particular abnormalities in eye movement have been correlated with increased intracranial pressure and the likelihood of concussion. The FDA based its approval on a study of 282 patients at six independent U.S. sites. For insights into the role urgent care can play in assessing and treating patients suspected of having a concussion, read Concussion Management in Urgent Care: A Primer in the JUCM archive.