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- Published on: 7 July 2023
- Published on: 6 July 2023
- Published on: 7 July 2023Response: Who should undertake the SCOAT6?
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 MoreConflict 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: 6 July 2023Who should undertake the SCOAT6?
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.