Eric Post, PhD, ATC is the Manager of Sports Medicine Research at the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC), where he leads injury and illness surveillance and concussion research for Team USA. He is co-Principal Investigator of the Para SCAT6 initiative, which is developing and validating concussion assessment tools for Para sport athletes.
Focus:
The Sport Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT6) is widely used in elite sport but has not been adapted or validated for Para athletes, a gap that represents both a clinical challenge and an issue of equity. This presentation will introduce the Para SCAT6-Wheelchair (WC) initiative: an evidence-informed project to develop, validate, and establish the reliability and clinical utility of a modified SCAT6 for athletes who use wheelchairs as their primary means of mobility.
I will describe the collaborative development summit held at USOPC headquarters in February 2025, which brought together 20 international experts, including clinicians, researchers, and Para athletes, to generate the first draft of the Para SCAT6-WC. I will outline the three key areas of modification (demographic/functional assessments, coordination and balance testing, and postural control and vestibular-ocular components), share lessons learned from the development process, and preview next steps including content validation, reliability testing, and prospective clinical evaluation.