The med-tech company PolarCool (publ.) continues the establishment of PolarCap® in international rugby, with the company announcing that they have agreed for Cardiff Rugby to be included as one of the teams providing PolarCap® this season as part of the United Rugby Championship (URC) league introduction agreement.
PolarCool develops the product PolarCap®, which alleviates the effects of concussions. The primary customers are sports clubs and facilities in ice hockey, rugby, football and handball, but also other sports with an increased risk of concussion.
The current agreement between the United Rugby Championship and PolarCool includes an introduction of PolarCap® into the league over the next year in all five countries, where one team per country are now providing concussion treatment with PolarCap®. However, due to interest from Cardiff Rugby in providing PolarCap®, it has been agreed that Cardiff will be included as one of teams providing the treatment this season.
The URC teams now providing PolarCap® include Cardiff Rugby (Wales), Scarlets Rugby (Wales), Edinburgh (Scotland), Zebre Parma (Italy), Connacht (Ireland) and the Vodacom Bulls (South Africa).
PolarCool CEO Erik Andersson comments: "It is great to have Cardiff Rugby also providing PolarCap® as part of the United Rugby Championship introduction.
"Due to the positive feedback we have received from using teams we see it as an advantage for the continued collaboration with URC that more teams will include treatment with PolarCap® in their concussion routines."
Dan Jones, Head of Medical Services said: “We have been in discussion with the CEO of PolarCap® Erik Andersson for some time. We have been interested in exploring the treatment effects of cooling in acute concussions and our collaboration with PolarCap® allows us to do this at the point of care.
"PolarCap® is a portable medical cooling treatment for concussion, intended to reduce the metabolic demand in the brain when a concussion occurs, by lowering exercise-induced brain temperature rapidly through controlled cooling.
"We pride ourselves on delivering gold standard care with the welfare of our players at the forefront of our approach. Introducing treatment modalities such as PolarCap® in collaboration with the URC demonstrates our drive to stay at the forefront of sports medicine and concussion management."
Following the United Rugby Championship introduction, the collective ambition of both the URC and PolarCool is a broader collaboration, with the aim to conduct a scientific research project. The project would hope to include support from additional rugby organizations such as World Rugby as well as world-leading researchers in the field.
The United Rugby Championship is one of the world's most prominent professional rugby leagues, including the best teams from five different international countries, spanning Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales.