By Roy Wenzl
The Wichita Eagle
An entrepreneur with close ties to Wichita State University has developed an iPhone application that researchers say could revolutionize how a key symptom of concussions can be quickly and accurately detected within minutes.
The “Sway Balance” app, developed by WSU alumnus Chase Curtiss of Tulsa has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. It was tested for two years in Wichita, both at WSU and among hundreds of athletes at Wichita East and Andover Central high schools, and in schools in Oklahoma and California.
“It’s a very cool tool,” said Jennifer Hudson, the head athletic trainer for the Wichita school district who helped test the app for two years with East High athletes.
What Curtiss did, said Jeremy Patterson, the WSU scientist who studied and tested it, was develop a cheap, fast, accurate tool that trainers and other health care specialists have never had before. It gathers measurable evidence in moments, showing that a person has probably suffered a concussion.
