HQ BaselineOculomotor testing
EyeGuide Focus: The 10-Second Eye Tracking Baseline Nobody's Heard Of
One of the fastest rapid screening tools in baseline concussion testing.
EyeGuide Focus uses infrared eye tracking technology to assess smooth pursuit eye movements — the ability of the eyes to accurately follow a moving target — and generates a numerical “Focus Score” in approximately 10 seconds. That makes it one of the fastest baseline assessment tools in existence.
Where it’s being used
The device was developed for rapid cognitive screening and has been adopted by the Mid-Atlantic Concussion Alliance (MAC Alliance) for their free Law Enforcement Concussion Baseline Testing Program, as documented on their program website. In this application, EyeGuide Focus is paired with Sway Balance (smartphone-based postural stability assessment) to create a two-tool baseline battery that captures oculomotor and balance function in under five minutes combined.
The science of smooth pursuit
The science behind eye tracking for concussion is well-established. Smooth pursuit eye movements require coordination across multiple brain regions — the frontal eye fields, supplementary eye fields, cerebellum, and brainstem nuclei. Concussion disrupts this coordination, producing measurable changes in smooth pursuit accuracy, velocity, and consistency. Research by Oculogica (the company behind the EyeBOX device) and others, published in the Journal of Neurotrauma and other peer-reviewed journals, has documented the relationship between eye movement abnormalities and concussive injury.
When speed matters
EyeGuide Focus’s speed makes it uniquely suited for high-volume baseline testing events — law enforcement academies, fire department physicals, military processing, and large athletic program pre-season testing days — where testing hundreds of individuals in a single session is operationally necessary.
How we use oculomotor assessment
At Headquarters, we include oculomotor assessment in our baseline protocol through validated tools appropriate to the clinical setting. For rapid, high-volume applications, devices like EyeGuide Focus offer a way to capture oculomotor baseline data that would otherwise be skipped due to time constraints. See also VOMS for a more detailed vestibular-ocular assessment.