As an expert of the physiology of concussions, Paul van Donkelaar works to improve conditions for hockey players.
A Kelowna-based company specializing in advanced materials to enhance human safety in high-risk settings and research scientists at the University of British Columbia (UBC) have joined forces to develop a helmet liner that may protect against concussions in hockey and other contact sports.
Helios Global Technologies is working with researchers at the Survive and Thrive Applied Research (STAR) facility at UBC's Okanagan campus in Kelowna, along with Imperial College London in the U.K. and the associated company, Armourgel. Their goal is to apply innovation to the growing crisis of high concussion rates in contact sports, with the first research focus on ice hockey.
"The estimated incidence rate of concussions among youth hockey players is 10 to 25 per cent. Hockey Canada reports that minor hockey registrations are declining, in part because parents worry about injuries to their children," says Paul van Donkelaar, director of UBC's School of Health and Exercise Sciences and an expert on the physiology of concussions. Working with him is mechanical engineering professor Peter Cripton, who does research on head-impact biomechanics.
Concussions in major-league hockey are also high profile, and the partners aim to create a helmet liner that will serve the needs of professional and amateur athletes alike.
"The advanced material we're testing is Armourgel and it's revolutionary. It's soft and flexible, but upon impact, it stiffens to mitigate the effects of the force and then returns to its natural state," says Martin Cronin, CEO of Helios.
Armourgel has already been commercialized for protection against knee, elbow and forearm injuries. The research with STAR focuses on the more complex matter of protecting the brain from impact.
"The STAR researchers are experts in assessing what happens in the brain when a player's head strikes the ice or another hard surface," Mr. Cronin says. "They're doing testing to simulate that impact and determine the blend of polymers in the material that offers optimal protection."
There are multiple benefits to the partnership. "Our students are learning how their research skills can be applied in the broader world. And we're all contributing to the greater good – economic benefits for a Canadian company and the potential to make contact sports safer," says Dr. van Donkelaar.
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