Tablet-based assessment measures motor skills, cognition, visual reflexes and eye movements in less than five minutes after a racing accident

When a driver suffers an impact, the medical problem isn't simply whether he or she can escape the cockpit on his or her own two feet. A concussion can produce more subtle changes, which aren't always immediately recognizable and aren't necessarily accompanied by loss of consciousness. Monaco Grand Prix 2025, held from 22 to 25 May, this grey area has become the testing ground for a system of digital neurological examNeuraccure has provided the medical team with a tablet-based assessment designed to quickly identify signs consistent with mild head trauma.

The startup, incubated since 2022 at MonacoTech, worked with the Medical Commission of the Automobile Club of MonacoThe protocol concentrates in meno di cinque minuti measures of fine motor skills, cognitive functions, reaction times, visual ability, and eye movements. The point is not to replace the doctor with an app, but to transform parts of the neurological examination into repeatable and comparable data, thus offering healthcare professionals additional support when time is limited and the consequences of an incorrect assessment can be significant. MonacoTech presents the experience as a world first; the first, however, remains a claim by the entity that released the news and not independently certified data.

The case is part of a problem that the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile has been dealing with for years. The FIA ​​considers concussion a mild brain injury This requires specific attention and includes possible signs such as headache, nausea, dizziness, fatigue, balance problems, memory loss, and emotional changes. The federation has also developed educational campaigns and procedures for returning to competition: the issue therefore concerns not only immediate assistance, but also the decision on when an athlete can safely return to riding.

Five minutes to measure functions that trauma can alter

The technology of Neuraccure It was born from the digitalization of parts of the traditional neurological exam. The platform includes tools such as Synapse, intended to explore functions such as dexterity, cognition and vision, and Vision, application of mobile video-oculographyThe latter records and analyzes eye movements using an iPad: saccades, slow pursuit, and other visual tasks can provide clues to abnormalities that a brief conventional exam might not easily detect.

For the use of Vision, Neuraccure indicates a iPad Pro with iOS 17 or later and recommends a fixed support, which is necessary to keep the device and subject in a standardized position. The software guides the calibration, checks the recording quality, and uses algorithms to flag any anomalies. The company speaks of automated or semi-automated analysis: this is an important distinction, because the result it is not equivalent to an automatic diagnosis of concussion. Digital data enters the clinical process as a support element, while interpretation remains entrusted to healthcare professionals.

In motorsports, this speed has obvious operational value. After an accident, the physician must gather information in an environment where time, competitive pressure, and the need to resume activity can make a thorough examination more difficult. A brief test does not eliminate these conditions, but it can. standardize some measurements and make it easier to compare assessments made at different times. This is precisely the repeatability, even more than speed, constitutes one of the most interesting elements of digital medicine applied to sports injuries.

Comparison to baseline matters more than a single score

Neuraccure proposes a model based on the individual baselineThe athlete is evaluated when he or she is in normal condition, and the result becomes a reference for any subsequent tests. In the event of a suspected or confirmed concussion, the test can be repeated and compared with the previous performance. The same principle is already used in various sports medicine protocols, because an isolated value may be less informative than a complete one. variation from the usual level of the person.

The company has also experimented with its tools in French rugbyIn the materials published on its website, it describes preseason evaluations, check-ups after a concussion, and subsequent monitoring until returning to activity. These are interesting results, but they should be read for what they are: data released by the developer, derived from limited samples and insufficient, by themselves, to demonstrate universal clinical efficacy. Neuraccure's own documentation distinguishes the validation of individual digital measures from the work still in progress specifically on sports concussions.

The scientific basis for digital neurological examination tools in other contexts is broader. A multicenter study published in 2026 on 565 Guests — patients with early multiple sclerosis, subjects with radiologically isolated syndrome, and healthy controls — used Neuraccure to measure hand coordination, low-contrast vision, reaction times, and eye movementsHealthy controls performed better than the other groups on digital measures. This data supports the platform's ability to detect subtle neurological differences, but it cannot automatically be transferred to the diagnosis of a concussion in a pilot recently recovered from an accident: the population, clinical condition, and objective of the examination are different.

From the track to digital medicine, the real challenge is validation

This is where the Munich project becomes more interesting than a simple technological demonstration. A device for the sports safety It must work not only in the laboratory, but also within a real medical protocol, with tight deadlines, multiple operators, and subjects who may present highly variable symptoms. Concussion does not produce a single digital biomarker capable of providing a binary response. For this reason, research on the topic tends to favor multidimensional assessments, combining symptoms, cognitive function, balance, neurological examination and other indicators.

The FIA ​​had already started the project in 2019 RESCUE-RACER with British partners to study advanced systems for assessing concussions in pilots, including neurocognitive tests, salivary biomarkers, functional magnetic resonance imaging, and ocular analysis technologies. Experience shows that the search for more objective tools did not begin with Neuraccure, and that the real challenge is not between "digital" and "traditional," but between protocols capable of combining speed, clinical sensitivity, reproducibility and decision-making utility.

For Neuraccure, the technological advantage is the ability to enclose part of this evaluation in relatively common hardwareBulky hospital equipment is not needed to record certain parameters: a tablet, a stand, and the software allow the test to be brought close to the track. But logistical ease does not automatically solve regulatory and clinical issues. What is needed is prospective studies on larger sporting populations, comparisons with recognized clinical standards, validated thresholds and a clear definition of the system's role in the decision-making process.

Another knot is the longitudinal data managementIf the greatest value comes from comparing with the baseline, the platform must be able to maintain comparable measurements over time and ensure that the acquisition conditions are sufficiently standardized. Neuraccure claims that its applications respect data privacy, but the publicly available documentation does not allow for a detailed reconstruction of the architecture, storage, localization, or governance of the collected information. In the event of large-scale deployment, these aspects would become an integral part of the technology evaluation.

Monaco Circuit: A Testbed for Digital Health

The 2025 trial also has a territorial significance. The system had been tested during the Monaco E-Prix of May 3rd and 4th and subsequently brought to the Formula 1 weekend. Neuraccure operated with theAutomobile Club of Monaco and with professionals linked to the Monegasque and Nice healthcare systems. The project thus connects a global sporting event to a local ecosystem made up of specialist medicine, clinical research, business incubation and competition organization.

The founder and scientific director Mikael Cohen, a neurologist also specialized in neuro-ophthalmology, developed the tools starting from the idea that mobile devices can transform some neurological observations into quantitative measuresMonacoTech, co-founded by Principality of Monaco, Monaco Telecom and Xavier Niel, instead, provides an incubation context. It's an example of how a small area can use high-visibility infrastructure and events as an operational environment in which to test technologies that require real-world conditions.

The next step, however, isn't measured by the fame of the Grand Prix. To become a stable tool in motorsport medicine, the system will have to demonstrate how well it recognizes alterations truly related to concussions, and how false positive and false negative rate, how it behaves in different categories and age groups and how the results concretely modify clinical decisions. These are questions of validation, not marketing.

The value of the Munich experience therefore lies in bringing a rapid digital neurological exam where the problem occurs: trackside, minutes after an impact. If the data collected in competitions and other sports can produce robust clinical evidence, the same architecture could find applications beyond motorsports, from rugby to soccer to the monitoring of other neurological conditions. For now, the most concrete result is having transformed a series of motor, cognitive and oculomotor tests in a mobile procedure that can be repeated over time and compared with the athlete's usual state.

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