Brothers back 15-minute concussion blood test

A Sydney health technology company backed by brothers Gary and Greg Cohen is working with Monash University scientists on a finger-prick blood test that could tell a coach, medic or paramedic within minutes whether a knock to the head has injured the brain.

Inventive Health Solutions is developing a portable test that would take a sample on site and return a result in under 15 minutes, with no laboratory and no hospital equipment.

At present there is no objective test at the point of injury. The usual response is to escalate to be safe and send the player to hospital for a CT scan, though research published in The Lancet shows more than 80 per cent of CT scans in mild head injury find nothing clinically significant.

IHS executive chairman Gary Cohen, who founded iSOFT Group, said the test grew out of the company’s earlier work.

“The work IHS did during COVID developing a point-of-care test has led us to this one,” Cohen said. “Following recent FDA clearances, we are developing a test to detect the proteins the brain releases when a mild traumatic brain injury occurs.

“There is currently no test available at the point of injury to prove a person has suffered a concussion. The need is becoming more urgent, because the number of sports injuries young people suffer is overwhelming.”

The test measures two proteins, GFAP and UCH-L1, released into the blood when brain cells are damaged. Large international studies have shown the markers reliably identify both people who need a scan and people who can safely skip one.

Regulators in the United States and Europe have cleared tests based on the same biomarkers, but these require trained clinicians, venous blood draws and expensive benchtop analysers. The IHS test is designed for the school sports teacher, the club trainer, the mine-site medic and the army field medic.

“A negative result gives people the confidence to manage an injury on site,” Cohen said. “A positive result means you act immediately, and you have an objective record of the decision you made.”

In January the project received a $497,736 Ignite grant from Australia’s Economic Accelerator, the federal program that helps turn university research into commercial products. The grant funds a year-long collaboration between IHS and Monash titled Rapid point-of-care tests for concussion management, with the aim of a laboratory-validated whole-blood test by early 2027.

The Monash team is led by associate professor Simon Corrie, who works in point-of-care diagnostics and biosensors, and protein biochemist Daniel Williams. It also includes Gil Garnier, Sudha Mokkapati and Matthew Pase.

Concussion has become one of the defining issues in Australian sport, with the AFL and NRL tightening protocols, former players launching class actions, and schools and community clubs facing growing pressure over duty of care. Research suggests about half of all concussions go unreported, and 15 to 30 per cent of people who have one develop persistent symptoms.

The potential uses extend beyond sport to defence forces in the field, construction and mining workplaces, ambulance services and aged care, where falls are a leading cause of head injury among older Australians.

The team also sees longer-term potential. GFAP is being studied as an early signal in stroke and Alzheimer’s disease, meaning a portable test could eventually be used well beyond concussion.

“Our first priority is to get a reliable, easy-to-use test into the hands of the people who make the first call after a head injury,” Cohen said.