KDKA: HeadsUP Pittsburgh offers baseline concussion testing for kids. Details here.

Photo by Baylee Gramling via Unsplash.

The Pittsburgh Penguins Foundation and UPMC Sports Medicine are partnering to make baseline concussion testing free for anyone who wants it through a program called HeadsUP Pittsburgh.

Doctors say all kids who play contact sports should get a baseline concussion test before playing. That way, if they get a concussion, doctors can easily diagnose them and create a specific treatment plan.

Dr. Micky Collins, executive director of the UPMC Sports Medicine Concussion Program, says, “It’s about a 20 to 25 minute test, and that baseline allows us to know where the person’s functioning is — cognitive functioning and neurological functioning is — prior to their injury. And then we use that as a benchmark to compare them post injury.”

Dr. Collins was one of the local UPMC doctors who helped develop the ImPACT test that’s now the standard used around the world for baseline concussion testing.

HeadsUP Pittsburgh runs through July 31. The free and discounted testing is available to anyone who wants it, not just kids or those who play contact sports.

To see where you can get the baseline concussion test, click here for the HeadsUP Pittsburgh Partnership website.