Like many other professional sports leagues, the Canadian Football League (CFL) is currently facing litigation over concussion-related injuries as previously addressed in this post.
Potentially as a response to both litigation and increasing public awareness of the long-term effects of concussions, the CFL has recently announced that it will be adding the King-Devick test to its sideline testing protocols for suspected concussions. The King-Devick test is touted as a two-minute test that can be administered by non-medical personnel and measures a potentially-concussed player’s response time in reading in reading single-digit numbers on printed cards or electronic media. If there is a difference between the player’s baseline time to complete the test and the player’s time following a suspected head injury, it is recommended that the player be remove from the game and evaluated for a potential concussion by a licensed medical provider.
Although no sideline concussion testing is perfect and concussions are difficult to diagnose even with diagnostic scans, the CFL’s addition of this test is another sign that professional sports leagues are continuing to refine their response to suspected head injuries as new testing and treatments are developed.
For more, see: CFL Adding a 2-minute Test to Standard Sideline Exams for Suspected Concussionand The Simple Concussion Test the NFL Does Not Use.