Objective To explore compliance with an electronically facilitated concussion management pathway (CMP) that operationalises the current community rugby recommendations.

Design Prospective mixed-methods study.

Setting Three provincial unions.

Participants Community male and female rugby players (n=1540).

Interventions (or Assessment of Risk Factors) The CMP comprised of an App that recorded players’ baseline assessment, derived from elements of the SCAT5, logged ‘suspected’ concussions, notified stakeholders about the ‘suspected’ concussion and triggered a referral to a general practitioner (GP) for assessment. GPs could review players’ assessment history at the time of diagnosis and medical clearance through a web-portal linked to the App.

Outcome Measures To determine players’ compliance with the recommended steps in the CMP following a suspected concussion, all interactions with the App and web-portal were documented and all stakeholders were interviewed post-season.

Main Results 200 ‘suspected’ concussions were reported over the 2019 season with 142 of these logged. Of these, 108 were confirmed via a medical diagnosis with 103 subsequently being medically cleared. Ten diagnoses were obtained at ED; baseline assessments were used for comparison in 75% of the diagnosis and medical clearance assessments. A strong theme that emerged from the interviews was the value of a clearly defined process. One stakeholder reported, ‘This [CMP] makes a difference to players, to the game … New Zealand Rugby has stood-up and said ‘we’ve recognised a problem, we’re being proactive and starting at the grassroots.’

Conclusions The use of technology to operationalise the recommended CMP resulted in a strong uptake and compliance in community rugby. This information is being used to refine the CMP processes.