TORONTO, Sept. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Highmark Interactive (Highmark), creators of the world’s first mobile, gamified, FDA cleared functional neurological assessment tool, announced today that Bowling Green State University, Kent State University, and Western Michigan University have been added as partners in deploying the EQ Elite neurologic assessment platform across their respective NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletics programs. Almost half of the NCAA’s Mid-American Conference (MAC) have made the transition to EQ in recent weeks, representing a definitive shift in how top athletic programs are looking to assess brain health and performance.
EQ Elite is Highmark’s high-performance sport module, designed to provide top-level student-athletes and athletic programs with a medical-grade digital tool for ongoing assessment across several areas of neurologic function. Bowling Green, Kent State and Western Michigan join the University at Buffalo as the latest NCAA athletic programs in the MAC to implement EQ Elite, representing a combined 65 intercollegiate teams and with further announcements expected soon.
“Our program is focused on getting exceptional results in competition while prioritizing the health of our student-athletes, so it’s exciting to have an unparalleled platform like EQ Elite that can play a meaningful role in both of those objectives,” said Dan Fischer, Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Medicine at Bowling Green. “As the role of technology in sport increases, implementing EQ Elite ensures that both our student-athletes and our administrators have that edge in innovation.”
“EQ Elite links objective neurologic data with the ability to provide ongoing oversight of our student-athletes, which until now has been a missing and much-needed combination for better protecting the brain health of student-athletes,” said Trent Stratton, Associate Athletic Director at Kent State. “With just their mobile phone, our student-athletes can do quick, game-based tests over time to generate a continual understanding of their neurologic function, which helps us optimize both their health and their athletic performance.”
“By fusing FDA-cleared testing with a dynamic platform that student-athletes will enjoy, EQ Elite’s functional neurologic platform has set a new standard for supporting athletic programs and ensuring that student-athletes are at the top of their game,” said Brian Bauer, Assistant Athletic Director and Director of Medical Services at Western Michigan. “Healthy brain function is essential for student-athletes, both in sport and their everyday lives, and EQ Elite is an example of how we are dedicated to using the latest in innovation to help our student-athletes be at their best.”
EQ’s modules are powered by an engaging mobile technology that utilizes clinically derived games to assist in the ongoing assessment of cognitive, vision, and balance function in student-athletes. Requiring just a mobile phone or tablet, the tests quickly create objective data that the student-athletes, their medical teams, and their team physicians can monitor and assess in real-time as part of head injury protocols, psychological health, and performance optimization.
“The athletic programs at Bowling Green, Kent State and Western Michigan are renowned for their work in developing student-athletes, and their ongoing use of EQ’s innovative technology will help optimize the health and performance of these dynamic young adults,” said Dr. Sanjeev Sharma, Co-Founder and CEO of Highmark Interactive. “We were confident that NCAA programs would be interested in EQ, but the MAC’s surge is actually showing that the sport community views our platform as imperative, consistent with what we’ve seen in the American senior care and workplace sectors.”
Traditional testing in sport has previously been hindered by single-baseline approaches, often limited in the scope of brain functions assessed, and requiring a range of wearables and separate platforms that combine expense, complexity and athlete anxiety. With high performance athletic programs demanding better, Highmark’s continued expansion into the NCAA builds upon its growing base of professional and amateur athletes that have embraced the more effective and efficient method of assessing brain performance.
Highmark’s award-winning technology is backed by an esteemed Advisory Board, including Olympic medalists and former professional athletes, as well as some of the world’s leading experts in the medical and neurosciences. An industry leader in innovation, Highmark continues to research and develop further advancements to its EQ platform, and has successfully deployed additional customized modules focused in sectors such as senior care, the workplace, mental health, youth and schools.
About Highmark Interactive
Founded in March 2017, Highmark Interactive was created to change the paradigm in neurological testing and management. The company vision was to become leaders in digital diagnostics and therapeutics by fusing the engagement of mobile gaming with machine learning. Its core product line, EQ Brain Performance, was launched in January 2019 and is utilized on security-compliant cloud-based technology. It has received clearance in the US (FDA), EU (CE Marking), Canada, Oceania and more, and is now being used in 29 countries. To learn more, visit www.highmark.tech.