Gwinnett Medical Center unveiled Georgias first sports injury treatment center and concussion classroom on wheels Wednesday.

This is the first vehicle of its kind in the state of Georgia and one of the first in the United States, said Kristin Crea, director of GMCs Sports Medicine department.

The Sports Medicine and Concussion Care-A-Van is a mobile care unit equipped with a full-service athletic training room. Basically, it allows GMCs Sports Medicine department to take its injury treatment and prevention services on the road.

When we travel around and talk to different directors, most athletic directors and coaches dont have access to injury prevention, Crea said. This really allows us to reach and have better access to these places that dont have this kind of care.

That includes care for concussions. GMCs Sports Medicine department includes a Concussion Institute directed by Dr. Saadiq El-Amid. Since the institute opened in August 2013, its treated more than 8,500 concussions.

Concussions are happening at epidemic levels, Crea said.

But El-Amid said the real scary cases are concussions that never receive treatment or get attention too late.

I cant tell you how many people ignore concussions, he said. If you ignore a concussion and continue to play a sport, you could hit your head again. That could lead to other issues.

Some patients accidentally ignore concussions because they dont think they could have sustained one unless they were hit on the head while playing a sport. But El-Amid said concussions are more common than that. In fact, any motion that jerks or whiplashes the head could move the brain and cause a concussion.

I personally sustained a concussion once because I tried to ride every roller coaster ride at Six Flags in 24 hours, El-Amid said.

Misinformation and ignorance about concussions thrives, particularly in areas where residents dont have contact with medical personnel or literature. Crea said she hopes the Care-A-Van can fix that gap. She and El-Amid plan to drive it all over the state, including to rural areas that wouldnt normally receive a lot of information about sports injuries or concussions.

The beauty of the Care-A-Van is its mobile, Crea said. So we can go wherever we need to different sports facilities, high schools, day cares, corporations, programs, schools and churches. We can go whereever we see fit.

Both Crea and El-Amid hope to use the Care-A-Van as a sort of moving billboard for concussion awareness and treatment.

I would love to be able to see this thing sitting in front of the mall on the weekends, El-Amid said. Its not only to teach those around, but also to let them have a name and an institution to get in touch with if they think they have a concussion.

The Care-A-Van can also help if nearby residents are already concerned they might have a concussion or could sustain one in the future. The van comes equipped with several laptops and tablets that allow physicians to give Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Tests and baseline tests.

An ImPACT assesment is an online test that measures congnitive ability. A patient can take an ImPACT test after sustaining a head injury to figure out whether the brain is concussed.

The Care-A-Van can administer these tests. But they arent helpful unless the person has a baseline score to compare with the ImPACT score. And few concussion patients have thought far enough ahead to take a baseline ImPACT score test before they were injured.

El-Amin said he hopes the Care-A-Van can change that.

Lets say we administer a baseline test to a kid in rural south Georgia. Then, the kid goes off to Alabama and sustains a concussion, El-Amin said. Then, when they want to ImPACT test him, hell be able to tell doctors, Hey, my family got impact tested by this mobile center a few years ago.

He said the Care-A-Van would be able to share the kids baseline score so his doctors could figure out the severity of his injury.

Right now, El-Amin said GMC plans to take its new mobile center all over Georgia, educating residents in as widespread an area as possible. But he doesnt want Gwinnett to monopolize the states mobile education space forever.

I would love to see other hospitals follow us, El-Amin said.

Its all about preventing potentially serious injuries.

Were in a position right now to really, really make a difference, El-Amin said.

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