Will This Device Protect Athletes’ Brains, or Only Make Them Think It Does?

“We’re not talking about concussions,” Tom Hoey, the company’s chief executive, said in an interview. “We are talking about the repetitive hits,” he said, adding, “the Q-Collar reduces the injury and changes to the brain caused by subconcussive impacts.”

Q30 Innovations, based in Westport, Conn., had a significant triumph last year when the F.D.A. approved the Q-Collar for sale as a medical device in the United States.

The agency declared that company-funded studies had shown it might limit damage to brain tissue. In November, the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation approved the Q-Collar for use in competition. Meghan Klingenberg, who plays for the Portland Thorns of the National Women’s Soccer League, wears it. So do football players at over a dozen college teams including Auburn and Alabama and 12 to 15 N.F.L. teams. Several high school teams have adopted the collar, too.

The device, a lightweight, cushioned collar that slips around the lower neck, is snug enough to constrict the slightest bit of blood flow but not too tight to cause discomfort.

Drue Tranquill, a linebacker for the Los Angeles Chargers, started wearing the Q-Collar this season. A hard hit on a punt play last year landed him in the NF.L.’s concussion observation program.

“I wanted to protect myself,” Tranquill said in a recent interview. In early October, though, the F.D.A. posted a summary of its decision that was far more measured than the February 2021 approval announcement. The summary, which the agency published to document its science, included a series of buyer beware caveats about the key study that led to its approval.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/19/sports/concussion-q-collar.html