Get support for your concussion recovery while you contribute to new Australian concussion research
What is AUS-mTBI?
The Australian Mild traumatic Brain Injury Study (AUS-mTBI) is new Australian research that harnesses mobile and web-based app technology to better understand concussion and improve management of concussion.
This is the first concussion study in the world to integrate best practice, world leading research and patient recovery experiences.
We seek information and insights from 5000 everyday people who have recently experienced concussion, who can be guided in their recovery while contributing to groundbreaking research.
If you’ve had a mild traumatic brain injury, that is a concussion, in the last 14 days, we would like to invite you to be part of this research project.
To acknowledge their contribution, people who complete the study will go into a draw to win one of five pre-paid Visa gift cards.
Participant Guide – Getting Started
Register Now
Why are we doing it?
Understanding concussion is a significant challenge worldwide, and in Australia, where at least one in five people will experience concussion in their lifetime.
Following concussion, most people feel better in a few days or weeks. A small number of people might continue to have ongoing symptoms including altered thinking, headache, dizziness and tiredness. It is currently not possible to know who will have persisting concussion symptoms.
Our study will help researchers better understand concussion to improve management of concussion for the hundreds of thousands of Australians who suffer concussion each year.
AUS-mTBI is collaboration of more than 100 experts in concussion and their organisations from across the country and has received ethics approval from the Alfred Hospital Human Research Ethics Committee.
What does participation in this project involve?
Participation in this project will involve using the HeadCheck app or website to track your concussion symptoms and receive guidance to returning to normal life e.g. family activities and events, sport, work, physical activity, or study after your concussion.
You will be asked to give your consent. You will be asked to provide information through an app or website about you, the circumstances around your injury, and your concussion symptoms.
Answering the questions about your injury will take between 10-15 minutes. As you recover, the app or website will remind you to complete questions about your concussion symptoms, your quality of life and whether you have returned to your regular activities fortnightly for the first three months, and then monthly until 12 months after your injury or until your symptoms have resolved.
What are the benefits and risks of taking part?
If you use the app and complete the recovery program, you are likely to benefit by learning about what your symptoms mean, tracking your symptoms over time, and having the app help you to getting back to daily activities.
If you continue to experience persistent symptoms, you may be offered the opportunity to participate in further studies focusing on concussion treatments. There are no known risks associated with participating in this project.
Participation in this project is voluntary, and you can withdraw from the project at any time. This will not affect your ability to access the HeadCheck concussion recovery program.
Register now
Contact Information
If you have any questions about this project, please contact the AUS-mTBI team at ausmtbi@gmail.com.
If you have any queries about logging in, enrolling in the study, or getting set up with the app, please contact one of our state-based study coordinators:
NSW
Darcy Morris
darcy.morris@sydney.edu.au
QLD, NT
Kylie Rixon
07 3735 7230
k.rixon@griffith.edu.au
VIC
Jade Guarnera
jade.guarnera@deakin.edu.au
WA, SA, TAS
Roley Myers
08 9457 0510
roley.myers@curtin.edu.au
Current documents for this project include:
Participant Information and Consent Form (Adults)
Participant Information Sheet (Minors)
Registry Participant Information Sheet (Adults)
Registry Participant Information Sheet (Minors)
Withdrawal of Consent Form (Adults)
Withdrawal of Consent Form (Minors)
Registry Withdrawal Form (Adults)
Registry Withdrawal Form (Minors)
The Australian Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Study Flyer
Media Release – Updated concussion app to help improve recovery and guide future research
Information on Helplines and Support Services within Australia can be found here.
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Information for researchers
More about the Australian Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Study (AUS-mTBI)
For the first time, the Australian mTBI research community has joined together to enable comprehensive information capture in a nationally integrated core dataset for people who have suffered a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), to develop prognostic algorithms and care models for Australians of all ages.
The novel approach behind this study involves the collection of social, biological, health, clinical, intervention (health care utilisation) and outcomes data, with the aim to improve patient care by designing and implementing a best-practice approach to gathering and linking nationally representative data from children and adults with mTBI. Self-reported demographic, injury circumstance, health status, mTBI symptomology and care management data will be collected via online platforms at the time of study enrolment and regular intervals until symptom resolution or 12 months post-injury.
Using machine learning the AUS-mTBI team will identify a suite of predictors of outcomes after mTBI and develop models to predict those at risk of poor outcome and identify improved care pathways for people after mTBI. Improving the clinical care and recovery of people with persisting post-concussion symptoms will reduce the public health burden, health care costs and health-related productivity loss associated with mTBI.
Assessments
- Injury circumstances, and pre-injury health and lifestyle
- Concussion symptoms
- Rivermead Post-Concussion Questionnaire (> 18 years)
- Post-Concussion Symptom Inventory (< 18 years)
- Quality of Life
- Quality of Life After Brain Injury – Overall Scale (QOLIBRI-OS)