Technology largely used in stroke care is emerging as a tool to see athletes with neurologic injuries related to sports, leading to a faster safe return to play.<\/p>\n
With a combination of cameras, microphones, and a secure internet connection, UConn Health neurologists can evaluate athletes remotely \u2013 daily if necessary \u2013 to monitor their recovery in tandem with their onsite providers.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s known as teleneurology, a form of telemedicine specific to neurology, and its utility in sports medicine, particularly related to concussions, is relatively uncommon. UConn Health started offering it in 2016, shortly after Dr. Anthony Alessi<\/a> established UConn Health\u2019s NeuroSport<\/a> practice in Storrs.<\/p>\n \u201cWe look at professional, collegiate, and high school athletes, all levels,\u201d Alessi says. \u201cWhere it really helps is with students. You avoid students missing time in class and having to travel a long distance, and they\u2019re getting more frequent follow-up and direction on their care. We\u2019re trying to get them back as quickly as we can, without having to wait for an appointment.\u201d<\/p>\n Often this patient video conference \u2013 which is encrypted to comply with patient privacy regulations \u2013 involves an athletic trainer, nurse practitioner, or another physician at the patient\u2019s side to assist with the examination. This enables Alessi to have a dialogue with both patient and provider, all while having eyes on the athlete.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a resource that\u2019s proven particularly effective for teen athletes.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing a teenager is a risk factor for concussion in and of itself,\u201d says Kendra Wiesel, director of health services at Loomis Chaffee, a private high school in Windsor. \u201cStudents are exposed to physical activity on a regular basis, and level of competition is elevated. They also have busy social and academic schedules, and their brains are still developing. Recovering from a concussion can be difficult for so many reasons for this demographic.\u201d<\/p>\n As part of its concussion recovery program, Loomis Chaffee started using teleneurology consultations with Alessi in the spring, providing follow-up care for a student athlete who also was a UConn Health patient.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were able to ensure a safe return to athletics and academics for the student by combining daily in-person visits in our health center with Skype sessions with Dr. Alessi,\u201d Wiesel says. \u201cThe landscape is continually changing when it comes to this field. It is so important to have access to specialists like Dr. Alessi. Telemedicine is an exciting development that we are looking forward to integrating into our program.\u201d<\/p>\n Teleneurology is one piece of a growing sports neurology discipline at UConn. Alessi provides consultative care to all levels of the New York Yankees organization, including in the Dominican Republic, and NeuroSport has formed an alliance with the Western Sports Foundation to provide care for professional bull riders.<\/p>\n A typical encounter with a bull rider would involve the athlete flying to Connecticut to meet with Alessi and a physical therapist and undergo an MRI and a neuropsychometric testing, which can provide insight into attention span, concentration, cognition, memory, motor function, perception, decision-making, and speech. Once the results are in, usually three weeks later, another evaluation follows.<\/p>\n When the program first started, riders were reluctant to participate out of fear they would be told they\u2019d have to quit riding, but Alessi says, \u201cWhat happened instead with some of the earlier riders is, we were able to incorporate things into their regimen that not only didn\u2019t tell them to stop riding, but improved their performance.\u201d<\/p>\n What an athlete may fear is a chronic brain trauma injury could turn out to be something entirely different, and treatable, such as a migraine, a sleep disorder, or a previously undiscovered learning disability.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re finding is that, as much as we are finding people who have brain damage and we need to explain to them that they need to leave their sport, the majority of the people we\u2019re seeing are people who we\u2019ve been able to improve their performance, and their life,\u201d Alessi says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Using teleneurology, UConn NeuroSport can provide frequent follow-up care to ensure a safe and prompt return to competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":152084,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1868],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2010],"class_list":["post-152082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meds"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-18 23:16:50","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152082"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152105,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152082\/revisions\/152105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/152084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152082"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=152082"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=152082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}