Published on the 09/11/2015 | Written by Donovan Jackson, Hayden McCall

Launched just months ago, Samsung’s Springboard is a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style event which drew 81 entries from innovative New Zealand startups, with the finale whittled down to 6 companies. Those organisations pitched their ideas to a live audience and judging panel, with CSx emerging as the eventual winner.

CSx focuses on the management of concussion in sport. The company leverages mobile technology to help medical personnel rapidly identify concussion at the side of the sports field, rather than hours or days after the event. It gathers information on individual players, who, after taking a knock, can be assessed on the basis of that historical data, by an iPad-delivered concussion evaluation test; it also manufactures a concussion sensor which fits behind a player’s ear.

Commercial director Martin Weekes presented the final pitch at the Samsung Springboard, winning the event from finalists which included big data company Parrot Analytics, crime prevention innovator Auror, augmented reality solution provider Area360, musician training specialist Melodics, ‘quantified self’ company ImeasureU, and MediKOL which provides an automated ‘in case of emergency’ solution.

Weekes said CSx technology was used by the majority of the teams competing in the recent Rugby World Cup, but also stressed that the company is seeking to make its concussion test available free of charge to all amateur sports players.

Speaking after the awards ceremony, Weekes said that although the public interest was around the concussion device that the company produces, the bigger game changer is concussion testing. “The concussion management regime in rugby is world class, and the NZRU has been leading in its introduction; however, it only gets applied in the professional game. The amateur game relies on the player getting to a doctor and clunky paper-based incident reporting from match officials back to the Unions,” he said.

CSx is digitising the information and integrating data with, for example, ACC, to create a better system to improve outcomes and make sports safer, he said. “Data from sensors is part of that but only one piece of the puzzle.”

Weekes expressed an element of frustration in his efforts to get the concussion testing regime established locally. “The NZRU is not a fast moving organisation. The experience I’ve just had with the Scottish Rugby Union was an eye-opener where one meeting resulted in a decision to test every single player in Scotland,” he said. “Local efforts to bring the amateur game on to the regime and get baseline testing completed have been met with interest but no action.”