The Round Up: A Rural Health Podcast
Jul 23, 2026 · 29 min · 10 segments
**🎙️ RDAQ Conference Bonus Episode** Concussion is more than a bump to the head, and recognising it early can change long-term outcomes. In this special bonus episode of *The Round Up*, recorded…
This is something that's getting more and more media, more and more... understanding in the general public about the importance of care after a head knock.
Can you talk us through some of the simple assessment tools that we can be using for concussions these days in our day-to-day practice?
And this is the rural GP who works in a GP practice or might actually even work in the emergency department as well.
And whilst I come at it from my sporting background, we see concussions in all facets, so be it a workplace injury or a motor vehicle accident.
So It's just using the sports principles because that's where the research has been to twist it around to help any clinician now maybe diagnose, recognise, treat these traumatic brain injuries where we haven't had a structure before.
So in the sporting world, we use a system called the SCAT-6, which is the Sports Concussion Assessment Tool.
It literally guides you through the steps on how to diagnose and assess for a concussion at basically the time of injury.
In our world for sports, if you hear a player is taking off for a HIA, We have 15 minutes to make that assessment.
So in the emergency department, you've got nurses or physios or allied health or junior doctors or med students or anyone could actually run through how to do one.
And then also going through that education on how to... basically rehab someone.
So yeah, that's the main tool I would say for all doctors to use or to be aware of to help guide them on, oh goodness, this, you know, concussions come in, what do I do other than just say rest because we've moved beyond that.
And I have to say, Kira, the SCAT-6 is so helpful that as a GP who uses it occasionally, it's also come in handy on the sideline of football when one of mine has gone down unconscious.
This is something that's getting more and more media, more and more... understanding in the general public about the importance of care after a head knock.
Can you talk us through some of the simple assessment tools that we can be using for concussions these days in our day-to-day practice?
And this is the rural GP who works in a GP practice or might actually even work in the emergency department as well.
And whilst I come at it from my sporting background, we see concussions in all facets, so be it a workplace injury or a motor vehicle accident.
So It's just using the sports principles because that's where the research has been to twist it around to help any clinician now maybe diagnose, recognise, treat these traumatic brain injuries where we haven't had a structure before.
So in the sporting world, we use a system called the SCAT-6, which is the Sports Concussion Assessment Tool.
It literally guides you through the steps on how to diagnose and assess for a concussion at basically the time of injury.
In our world for sports, if you hear a player is taking off for a HIA, We have 15 minutes to make that assessment.
So in the emergency department, you've got nurses or physios or allied health or junior doctors or med students or anyone could actually run through how to do one.
And then also going through that education on how to... basically rehab someone.
So yeah, that's the main tool I would say for all doctors to use or to be aware of to help guide them on, oh goodness, this, you know, concussions come in, what do I do other than just say rest because we've moved beyond that.
And I have to say, Kira, the SCAT-6 is so helpful that as a GP who uses it occasionally, it's also come in handy on the sideline of football when one of mine has gone down unconscious.
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