LAFAYETTE — Dr. Jason Cormier is not just an accomplished neurosurgeon here in Lafayette; he is also accomplished on the race track.
Racing may just be a hobby, but fighting brain injury is not.
"I've been studying brain injury for several years, and I think that brain injury and concussions is a dynamic process," Cormier said. "I think we need to be thinking out of the box, if you will, at different technologies."
He created the Motorsport Group a few years ago. Cormier and company have been working to make racing safer on and off the track.
"A healthy mind will allow a healthy performance," Cormier said. "If you're not in the right state of mind, you won't perform well."
After years of research the Q-collar has made its way to the race track and sport teams across the country.
"This technology was initially started with NASA and this company brought it on," Cormier said. "They brought a group of scientists together to see how we can improve this collar, this science."
The Q-collar works like this: You simply put it around your neck like a collar, and it applies pressure to the back of the neck. The pressure allows the artery in the neck to safely backfill the brain with blood, preventing the slosh effect on the brain.
"That's been demonstrated to decrease concussions by over 90 percent," Cormier said.
With over seven years of data to back up the effectiveness of the Q-collar, Cormier hopes that it will soon be made available worldwide.
"Its been in over 2600 football games across the country," Cormier said. "There was recent data in women's soccer that was just published. Again, if pre- and postseason MRIs demonstrated dramatic changes in MRIs, so we know this collar is working."
With data to back it up Cormier said, one day, the collar may be just another part of the uniform--possibly the most important part.
