One of the two co-founders of Bearmind, Mathieu Falbriard, was in Quebec at the beginning of December. Accompanied by his two employees responsible for North American operations, Patrick Boivin and Michel Benoit, he met The Press.
Published at 5:00 a.m.
Mr. Falbriard played hockey from the ages of 4 to 20, before switching to rugby, which he played for the next 12 years. Head impacts and concussions, he had and saw them.
“I have friends myself who are now having problems as a result of repeated impacts,” he says.
I don't understand why we don't do anything when there is technology that can help. It's like continuing to drive a car without wearing your seat belt.
Mathieu Falbriard, co-founder of Bearmind
During his doctorate in motion analysis at the École Polytechnique de Lausanne, Mr. Falbriard looked into motion sensors. His thesis aimed to correct the errors of these sensors, “which are precise, but have certain limitations”.
“I had lots of ideas of how we could do better. »
During the COVID-19 pandemic, he and co-founder Tom Bertrand reached out to entrepreneurs who had already attempted to create a device like the one they wanted to develop. “People who had made systems in the past, there hadn't been a lot of clinical research, validation [médicale]. »
The two men therefore took the time to find the right researchers and set up research projects. In the summer of 2021, they obtained a research fund of almost 1 million Swiss francs (approximately 1.6 million Canadian dollars). “All this medical evidence that we needed to improve the system, we now had it thanks to this project,” explains Mr. Falbriard.
From all this long-term work was ultimately born the sensor that we are discovering today, used this season by seven European professional teams, two Quebec teams at the major junior level – the Sherbrooke Phoenix and the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada – as well as an NCAA women's team.
The sensor
The Bearmind sensor is inserted into a sort of small rubber case attached to the back of the hockey helmet.
The system actually includes two types of sensors; the first allows the movement of the player's head to be recorded during an impact, and the second measures head rotations.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, THE PRESS
The Bearmind system makes it possible to record the movement of the player's head during an impact and to measure its rotations.
“We know today, thanks to research, that head rotations are a fairly good predictor of trauma risk,” notes Mr. Falbriard. Thanks to these sensors, we really have a three-dimensional view of how the head moves with each impact. »
Throughout the research project, there were obviously some commotions. [Les chercheurs] are able to make the connection between the type of movement the head has had and where there have been incidents of concussions. [L’association entre les deux] allows you to put a risk factor on a certain type of movement.
Patrick Boivin, head of North American operations at Bearmind
“Our system is a very simple gradation,” continues Mr. Boivin. It's green, yellow or red. But we're not telling you that red means an impact of such force. This means that it is a fairly severe impact which [indique qu’]there is a high probability that there was a concussion. »
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, THE PRESS
Patrick Boivin, head of North American operations at Bearmind
See what you don't see
The three men insist: the sensor does not replace the doctor and does not make a medical diagnosis. Rather, it provides additional information to the doctor or sports therapist, who can thus be proactive rather than reactive.
“It allows you to see what you don’t see or, ultimately, to know what you don’t know,” explains Mr. Boivin.
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
The Bearmind sensor is used this season by seven European professional teams, two Quebec major junior teams – the Sherbrooke Phœnix and the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada – as well as an NCAA women's team.
Let's go with a concrete example: a defender receives a small shoulder blow to the chin. His head spins, but the game continues. The defender takes the puck out of his zone, goes to the bench, doesn't feel very well, but says nothing for fear of being removed from the game.
After the match, when the player's sensor is placed in its charging base, the therapist can be informed not only of the blow in question, but also of its severity. He can then react accordingly and go see the player to ask the appropriate questions to find out his symptoms, if there are symptoms. Let us also mention that, from the end of January, this therapist will be able to receive real-time alerts about hits received, which will allow him to see the player concerned immediately upon his arrival at the bench.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, THE PRESS
Mathieu Falbriard, co-founder of Bearmind
When the brain is injured, if you hit the back of the head again, the consequences can be really serious. This is called second impact syndrome.
Mathieu Falbriard, co-founder of Bearmind
The goal is not to prevent players from playing. On the contrary. “We want you to play as long as possible, but when you play, we want you not to be at risk, to be in the best possible condition. »
“The real problem is all these repeated impacts,” he adds. Even small and medium impacts, which do not necessarily give symptoms. All these are microtraumas which accumulate over time and which make a player either more at risk of injury or less efficient. »
Mr. Falbriard also cites a study from Boston University published very recently in the medical journal JAMA Network Openwhich shows that hockey players are at higher risk of dementia due to repeated head impacts.
“What we say is: without a sensor, all these small impacts and these medium impacts are impossible to see, to quantify. »
Read our article “Hockey players at greater risk of dementia”
