Responses

Download PDFPDF

Sport Concussion Office Assessment Tool 6 (SCOAT6)
Free
Compose Response

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Author Information
First or given name, e.g. 'Peter'.
Your last, or family, name, e.g. 'MacMoody'.
Your email address, e.g. higgs-boson@gmail.com
Your role and/or occupation, e.g. 'Orthopedic Surgeon'.
Your organization or institution (if applicable), e.g. 'Royal Free Hospital'.
Statement of Competing Interests

PLEASE NOTE:

  • A rapid response is a moderated but not peer reviewed online response to a published article in a BMJ journal; it will not receive a DOI and will not be indexed unless it is also republished as a Letter, Correspondence or as other content. Find out more about rapid responses.
  • We intend to post all responses which are approved by the Editor, within 14 days (BMJ Journals) or 24 hours (The BMJ), however timeframes cannot be guaranteed. Responses must comply with our requirements and should contribute substantially to the topic, but it is at our absolute discretion whether we publish a response, and we reserve the right to edit or remove responses before and after publication and also republish some or all in other BMJ publications, including third party local editions in other countries and languages
  • Our requirements are stated in our rapid response terms and conditions and must be read. These include ensuring that: i) you do not include any illustrative content including tables and graphs, ii) you do not include any information that includes specifics about any patients,iii) you do not include any original data, unless it has already been published in a peer reviewed journal and you have included a reference, iv) your response is lawful, not defamatory, original and accurate, v) you declare any competing interests, vi) you understand that your name and other personal details set out in our rapid response terms and conditions will be published with any responses we publish and vii) you understand that once a response is published, we may continue to publish your response and/or edit or remove it in the future.
  • By submitting this rapid response you are agreeing to our terms and conditions for rapid responses and understand that your personal data will be processed in accordance with those terms and our privacy notice.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Vertical Tabs

Other responses

Jump to comment:

  • Published on:
    Response: Who should undertake the SCOAT6?
    • Jon S Patricios, Sport and Exercise Medicine Physician Wits Sport and Health (WiSH), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
    • Other Contributors:
      • Gavin A Davis, Neurosurgeon

    Response: Who should undertake the SCOAT6?

    Thank you for your interest in the Sports Concussion Office Assessment Tools, the SCOAT6 and Child SCOAT6. These tools were developed to guide clinicians internationally, using evidence-based components.1 The evidence shows that concussion in children, adolescents and adults affects multiple clinical domains, and the office assessment must address the clinically relevant domains, which will be different in each concussed individual. Using the symptom scales, and interview with the patient, the clinician can identify which clinical domains are endorsed. This guides the clinician towards the appropriate components of the Child SCOAT6 / SCOAT6. Incorporated into the tools are Green “recommended” sections and Orange “optional” sections, to assist the time-challenged clinician in focusing on the most relevant modalities.2,3

    Developing the Office tools was a balancing act that primarily considered producing a thorough, multimodal assessment tool but one that was also easy to use and not too lengthy. For instance, we could not ignore research supporting the value of the VOMS but opted for the recently validated modified VOMS which is a validated briefer version.4,5

    The scientifically derived clinical reality is that the office assessment of concussed athletes requires a multimodal assessment. Trying to perform a proper multimodal assessment in a 10-minute time period is neither appropriate nor realistic. The concu...

    Show More
    Conflict of Interest:
    JSP is an Editor of BJSM for which he receives a honorarium. He is an unpaid consultant to the World Rugby Concussion Advisory Group for which he also serves as an Independent Concussion Advisor (fee per consultation). Other unpaid positions include being medical advisor to South African Rugby, Co-chair of the Scientific Committee, 6th International Conference on Concussion in Sport (travel and accommodation subsidised), Board member of the CISG and a Scientific Advisory Board Member of EyeGuide. GAD is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Sixth International Conference on Concussion in Sport; an honorary member of the AFL Concussion Scientific Committee; Section Editor, Sport and Rehabilitation, Neurosurgery and has attended meetings organised by sport organisations including NFL, NRL, IIHF, IOC and FIFA; however has not received any payment, research funding or other monies from these groups other than for travel costs
  • Published on:
    Who should undertake the SCOAT6?
    • Neil Heron, Sport and exercise medicine consultant / GP / Clinical Lecturer Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland; Keele University, England.

    Dear Authors,

    Great work on putting together the SCOAT6 and this is a really helpful piece for the office sport medicine doctors. However, what about the community healthcare teams, eg General Practitioners, GPs, what tool should they be using? Particularly bearing in mind the time constraints of community health contacts, eg GP consults in the UK are most often limited to 10 minutes. What can we expect non-specialist sport medicine doctors to do to help make the concussion diagnosis and therefore initiate appropriate management promptly? Should we be making a SCATgp?

    Conflict of Interest:
    None declared.