Despite recent medical advancements, the methods for treating brain injuries have relatively been unchanged, according to the Quantum Institute, a startup that focuses on concussion therapy. Founder Kelly Gee says that current treatments for concussions focus on only treating the injury, instead of on preventative care, or on strong recovery plans.
Gee wants to change all of that.
As a former athlete, and minor-league coach, Gee struggled first-hand as a result of several concussions throughout his athletic career. In 2009, during a game coaching the Chicago Steel, a hockey puck struck him between the eyes. As a result, Gee suffered a devastating concussion from which he had great difficulty recovering.
For several years afterwards, Gee faced a tumultuous battle recovering from the effects the concussion. He sought answers from several neurologists on how best he could find ways to treat himself, but repeatedly faced dead-ends. Frightened about his condition, Gee found himself with a lot of answers to his questions, but no real solution.
“It got to the point where I had to make a decision. It was either sit down and wait for a solution, or stand up and make one.”
So he planted the seeds for Quantum Institute, which seeks to treat concussions differently from its competitors. Gee says that current treatments only offer the cognitive response to injury. The Quantum Institute, he says, will offer multidimensional baseline and post-trauma brain maps. The Institute intends to take concussion treatments a step further by providing greater detail of the “visibility of the injury.”
We are the only consumer-based brain-mapping company that offers a medical diagnostic. Our competition offers aptitude tests that give terrific data and gives the cognitive response to injury, but doesn’t show the injury.
Another one of the tasks Gee wants to achieve with Quantum Institute is ensuring that care is affordable for those that need it. Quantum Institute is not dependent on a person’s insurance. Most hospitals offer MRIs for prices that tend to range in the thousands of dollars, making payment difficult for many people. Gee says that Quantum Institute offers these services in the “ballpark of a hundred dollars.”
Gee previous startups include Kage Sports, a training school for goalies located in Wheeling,IL. Gee handed over the reins of Kage Sports to a friend to better focus his attention on Quantum Institute. He has proposed several initiatives which would take the company beyond concussion-focused therapies and into brain-restorative and mental training programs.
Quantum Institute will cater to athletes from all tiers in sports, from high school to professional. They have already spoken with several professional NFL, NHL, boxers, and mixed-martial athletes in order to get a better awareness of how to best treat potential clients.
In his lifelong journey toward recovery, Gee has found a way to combat the problem that has plagued him for his entire professional athletic career. He seeks to make Quantum Institute change the way doctors treat concussions, and hopefully, brain injuries in general. ❒
[Photos courtesy of Kelly Gee. Hockey rink located at Edge Ice Arena.]
