Clinical Research at NeuroSport
Advancing Our Understanding of Dysautonomia, POTS, and Concussion Through Patient-Centered Research
At NeuroSport Spine and Concussion Center, we believe that meaningful clinical research begins with the patient. Every individual brings a unique combination of symptoms, physiologic responses, challenges, and opportunities for recovery. By systematically studying these experiences, we seek to identify patterns, better understand complex neurologic and autonomic conditions, and develop more effective approaches to patient care.
Our research efforts focus on the relationship between autonomic nervous system function, neurologic health, exercise tolerance, and rehabilitation outcomes. Through structured clinical assessments, longitudinal patient monitoring, and the ongoing investigation of the Moreau POTS Protocol™, we are working to bridge the gap between clinical observations and scientific discovery.
Our goal is straightforward: to transform the knowledge gained through patient care into meaningful research that advances clinical understanding, informs rehabilitation strategies, and ultimately improves the lives of people living with these challenging conditions.
Our Current Research: The Moreau POTS Protocol™
Investigating Autonomic Dysfunction Through Clinical Care and Longitudinal Research
Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) and related forms of dysautonomia present significant challenges for patients and healthcare professionals. Symptoms frequently involve multiple physiologic systems, vary considerably between individuals, and may substantially interfere with everyday activities, physical performance, cognitive function, and quality of life.
At NeuroSport, our clinical experience with patients living with these conditions has led to the development of the Moreau POTS Protocol™ (MPP), an emerging, individualized rehabilitation approach that integrates autonomic assessment, carefully monitored physical activity, and progressive rehabilitation.
Our ongoing longitudinal research is designed to systematically evaluate changes in autonomic function, symptom burden, exercise tolerance, cognitive performance, balance, and patient-reported functional capacity over time. By combining objective physiologic measurements with the patient's experience of illness and recovery, we seek to better understand how individuals respond to rehabilitation, why recovery patterns differ, and which clinical findings may help guide future treatment decisions.
The research incorporates repeated assessments over approximately 6 to 12 months, allowing investigators to examine both short-term responses and longer-term patterns of change. This approach recognizes that recovery from dysautonomia is often complex, nonlinear, and influenced by multiple interacting physiologic factors.
Our central research question is whether, and to what extent, structured, individualized autonomic rehabilitation is associated with measurable improvements in physiologic regulation, symptom burden, and everyday function.
The Moreau POTS Protocol™ remains an emerging clinical approach under investigation. Our objective is to evaluate its outcomes systematically, identify its limitations, and contribute clinically meaningful evidence to the evolving understanding of dysautonomia rehabilitation.
Research Methods and Outcomes
Measuring Physiologic Function, Symptoms, and Meaningful Patient Recovery
Understanding dysautonomia requires more than measuring heart rate or evaluating a patient's symptoms at a single appointment. At NeuroSport, our research approach combines objective physiologic testing, standardized clinical assessments, and patient-reported outcomes to develop a more comprehensive understanding of autonomic function and recovery.
Our longitudinal research incorporates several important areas of assessment:
Autonomic Function and Cardiovascular Regulation
The NASA Lean Test, Active Stand Test, and Cold Pressor Test provide information about cardiovascular responses to orthostatic and physiologic stress. Heart rate, blood pressure, and their patterns of change are evaluated to better characterize autonomic regulation and potential changes over time. Heart rate variability monitoring may provide additional information about autonomic function.
Neurologic and Cognitive Performance
Selected assessments examine cognitive processing, attention, balance, vestibular function, and ocular motor performance. These measures are particularly relevant because dysautonomia frequently involves symptoms extending beyond cardiovascular regulation, including brain fog, dizziness, visual disturbances, and impaired exercise tolerance.
Patient-Reported Symptoms and Functional Outcomes
Standardized instruments, including the Composite Autonomic Symptom Score (COMPASS-31), symptom inventories, and assessments of sleep, mood, and daily function, help document the patient's experience. These measures are essential because improvements in physiologic testing do not always correspond directly with improvements in how a patient feels or functions.
Longitudinal Monitoring and Clinical Interpretation
Repeated assessments, generally conducted at approximately six-week intervals, allow us to examine changes over time rather than relying exclusively on isolated measurements. The research seeks to identify patterns of improvement, symptom fluctuation, exercise tolerance, and individual variation in rehabilitation responses.
By examining these multiple dimensions together, we hope to better understand which measurable changes are associated with meaningful clinical improvement and whether particular patterns of autonomic dysfunction influence rehabilitation outcomes.
Our research emphasizes an important principle: successful rehabilitation should ultimately be reflected not only in physiologic measurements but also in a patient's ability to participate more fully in everyday life.
Measuring Physiologic Function, Symptoms, and Meaningful Patient Recovery
Understanding dysautonomia requires more than measuring heart rate or evaluating a patient's symptoms at a single appointment. At NeuroSport, our research approach combines objective physiologic testing, standardized clinical assessments, and patient-reported outcomes to develop a more comprehensive understanding of autonomic function and recovery.
Our longitudinal research incorporates several important areas of assessment:
Autonomic Function and Cardiovascular Regulation
The NASA Lean Test, Active Stand Test, and Cold Pressor Test provide information about cardiovascular responses to orthostatic and physiologic stress. Heart rate, blood pressure, and their patterns of change are evaluated to better characterize autonomic regulation and potential changes over time. Heart rate variability monitoring may provide additional information about autonomic function.
Neurologic and Cognitive Performance
Selected assessments examine cognitive processing, attention, balance, vestibular function, and ocular motor performance. These measures are particularly relevant because dysautonomia frequently involves symptoms extending beyond cardiovascular regulation, including brain fog, dizziness, visual disturbances, and impaired exercise tolerance.
Patient-Reported Symptoms and Functional Outcomes
Standardized instruments, including the Composite Autonomic Symptom Score (COMPASS-31), symptom inventories, and assessments of sleep, mood, and daily function, help document the patient's experience. These measures are essential because improvements in physiologic testing do not always correspond directly with improvements in how a patient feels or functions.
Longitudinal Monitoring and Clinical Interpretation
Repeated assessments, generally conducted at approximately six-week intervals, allow us to examine changes over time rather than relying exclusively on isolated measurements. The research seeks to identify patterns of improvement, symptom fluctuation, exercise tolerance, and individual variation in rehabilitation responses.
By examining these multiple dimensions together, we hope to better understand which measurable changes are associated with meaningful clinical improvement and whether particular patterns of autonomic dysfunction influence rehabilitation outcomes.
Our research emphasizes an important principle: successful rehabilitation should ultimately be reflected not only in physiologic measurements but also in a patient's ability to participate more fully in everyday life.
Concussion and Autonomic Dysfunction Research
Exploring the Relationship Between Brain Injury, Autonomic Regulation, and Persistent Postconcussion Symptoms
Concussion is increasingly recognized as an injury that may affect more than cognitive, vestibular, and neurologic function. Emerging research indicates that traumatic brain injury can also disrupt autonomic nervous system regulation, potentially contributing to persistent symptoms such as dizziness, fatigue, exercise intolerance, cognitive difficulties, heart rate abnormalities, and orthostatic intolerance.
At NeuroSport, our extensive clinical experience in concussion management and our growing specialization in dysautonomia and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) have created an important intersection of clinical interests. We frequently evaluate patients whose symptoms extend beyond traditional concussion presentations, raising important questions about the role of autonomic dysfunction in prolonged recovery and persistent postconcussion symptoms.
Understanding the Brain–Autonomic Nervous System Connection
The autonomic nervous system plays a critical role in regulating heart rate, blood pressure, vascular function, temperature regulation, and the body's response to physical and physiologic stress. Following concussion, disturbances in these regulatory processes may contribute to symptoms that overlap with those experienced by patients with POTS and other forms of dysautonomia.
Importantly, similar symptoms do not necessarily indicate identical underlying mechanisms. Not every patient experiencing dizziness, fatigue, or exercise intolerance following concussion has dysautonomia or POTS. Differentiating autonomic dysfunction from vestibular, cervical, ocular motor, psychological, and other contributors to persistent symptoms remains an essential clinical and research challenge.
Connecting Clinical Observations With Physiologic Assessment
NeuroSport's approach emphasizes the integration of detailed clinical histories, standardized concussion assessments, orthostatic cardiovascular testing, physiologic monitoring, and carefully supervised exercise rehabilitation.
These assessments provide opportunities to investigate whether particular patterns of autonomic dysfunction are associated with prolonged symptoms, reduced exercise tolerance, or differences in rehabilitation response. They may also help identify patients who would benefit from further autonomic evaluation.
An especially important area of interest is understanding how concussion-related autonomic abnormalities compare with those observed in patients who develop dysautonomia without a recognized brain injury.
Advancing Questions That May Improve Future Care
Several important questions continue to guide our clinical observations and research interests:
What physiologic mechanisms contribute to autonomic dysfunction following concussion?
Why do some patients recover promptly while others experience prolonged autonomic and neurologic symptoms?
Can objective autonomic measurements help distinguish different contributors to persistent postconcussion symptoms?
How might individualized exercise and autonomic rehabilitation influence symptoms, physiologic regulation, and functional recovery?
Are there shared physiologic patterns between postconcussion autonomic dysfunction and other forms of dysautonomia?
Through continued clinical investigation and engagement with emerging scientific evidence, NeuroSport seeks to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of these relationships.
Our long-term objective is to help bridge two fields that have often been evaluated separately: concussion rehabilitation and autonomic nervous system medicine. By better understanding their interactions, we hope to support more precise assessment, individualized rehabilitation, and improved outcomes for patients experiencing persistent symptoms after brain injury.
Research Ethics and Participant Protection
Advancing Clinical Knowledge Through Responsible Research, Informed Consent, and Respect for Every Patient
At NeuroSport Spine and Concussion Center, we believe that meaningful clinical research must first be grounded in scientific integrity, ethical responsibility, and respect for the individuals who make that research possible. Our commitment to advancing knowledge about dysautonomia, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), and concussion is inseparable from our responsibility to protect the health, dignity, privacy, and autonomy of every research participant.
Clinical research involving individuals with complex chronic conditions requires particular attention to patient safety, informed decision-making, and the potential challenges associated with rehabilitation. Many patients with dysautonomia experience significant symptom fluctuations, limited activity tolerance, and unpredictable responses to physiologic stress. These considerations are central to responsible research design and clinical oversight.
Institutional Review Board Oversight
The Moreau POTS Protocol™ research initiative operates within an Institutional Review Board (IRB) framework established to provide ethical oversight of human-participant research.
IRB review is an important safeguard in clinical investigation. It helps ensure that research procedures, recruitment practices, informed consent materials, potential risks, and participant protections receive appropriate independent evaluation.
Our commitment to ethical oversight reflects the importance of conducting meaningful research while recognizing that the health and welfare of participants must remain the highest priority.
Informed Consent and Voluntary Participation
Participation in NeuroSport research is voluntary. Prospective participants receive information about the purpose of the study, the assessments and procedures involved, potential risks and anticipated benefits, and the responsibilities associated with participation.
We recognize that patients may be particularly interested in emerging rehabilitation approaches when conventional treatments have provided limited improvement. For this reason, we believe it is essential to clearly distinguish investigational research from established treatment recommendations.
Participants should understand that the Moreau POTS Protocol™ is an emerging clinical rehabilitation approach undergoing systematic evaluation. Individual responses vary, temporary symptom exacerbation may occur, and improvement cannot be guaranteed.
Research participants may decline participation or withdraw according to the informed consent process without compromising their access to appropriate clinical care.
Participant Safety, Privacy, and Confidentiality
Participant safety is a fundamental consideration throughout the research process. Clinical assessments and rehabilitation activities are individualized according to patient presentation, physiologic responses, symptom tolerance, and relevant medical considerations.
Because autonomic dysfunction can produce substantial variability in cardiovascular regulation and exercise tolerance, careful monitoring and appropriate modification of activities are important elements of the clinical research environment.
Protecting participant information is equally important. Research records and health information are managed according to applicable privacy requirements and the confidentiality safeguards established for the research protocol. Research findings should be communicated in ways that respect participant privacy and protect identifiable personal health information.
Scientific Integrity and Responsible Communication
NeuroSport is committed to evaluating research findings objectively, including results that may not support our initial clinical expectations.
We recognize the importance of distinguishing clinical observations from scientifically established conclusions. Improvements observed during patient care may generate valuable research questions, but determining whether those improvements are attributable to a particular intervention requires careful study and appropriate analysis.
Our objective is not simply to demonstrate that an intervention works. It is to understand whether it works, for whom it may be beneficial, under what circumstances, and what limitations or risks must be considered.
The guiding principle of our research is straightforward: the pursuit of new scientific knowledge must never take precedence over the safety, dignity, informed choices, and well-being of the patients who place their trust in us.
Contact NeuroSport About Research
Research Collaboration Opportunities: Connecting Clinical Experience With Scientific Discovery
Advancing our understanding of dysautonomia, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), and concussion requires collaboration among clinicians, researchers, academic institutions, and organizations committed to improving patient outcomes.
At NeuroSport Spine and Concussion Center, we recognize that some of the most important research questions emerge directly from patient care. Our clinical experience provides opportunities to observe complex physiologic patterns, evaluate rehabilitation responses, and identify questions that warrant further scientific investigation.
We welcome opportunities to collaborate with investigators and organizations whose expertise complements our clinical work and whose research objectives align with our commitment to ethical, patient-centered investigation.
Bridging the Gap Between Clinical Practice and Research
NeuroSport's clinical environment offers a distinctive perspective on autonomic nervous system disorders and persistent postconcussion symptoms. Our patient population includes individuals with complex, overlapping presentations involving orthostatic intolerance, exercise intolerance, neurologic symptoms, and functional limitations.
Through the Moreau POTS Protocol™ and our broader clinical assessment programs, we have developed structured approaches to collecting physiologic, neurologic, symptom-based, and functional outcome information.
These capabilities create opportunities to explore clinically relevant research questions, investigate potential physiologic relationships, and contribute to projects that benefit from longitudinal observation of patients undergoing rehabilitation.
We believe that connecting real-world clinical experience with rigorous scientific methodology can help generate research that is both scientifically meaningful and directly relevant to patient care.
Areas of Potential Collaboration
We are particularly interested in collaborations involving:
In-Office Clinical Assessment of Dysautonomia and Postconcussion Syndrome
NeuroSport offers comprehensive, office-based clinical assessments for patients with dysautonomia, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), and persistent postconcussion syndrome (PCS). Our evaluation methods integrate standardized clinical testing, objective physiologic measurements, and detailed neurologic examinations to characterize complex presentations and identify potentially overlapping mechanisms of dysfunction.
Our autonomic assessments includes evidence supported climnical procedures and selected heart rate variability measurements. These evaluations are complemented by validated symptom inventories and functional assessments to better characterize autonomic regulation, orthostatic intolerance, and exercise-related symptoms.
For patients with concussion and persistent postconcussion symptoms, our assessments incorporate standardized concussion evaluations, vestibular and ocular motor testing, balance assessment, cognitive screening, cervical spine examination, and evaluation of exercise tolerance when appropriate.
Integrating these assessments within a single clinical setting creates opportunities to investigate the relationship between autonomic dysfunction and postconcussion symptoms, identify clinically relevant physiologic patterns, and collect standardized longitudinal outcome data.
These capabilities may support collaborative clinical investigations, patient phenotyping, observational studies, and research projects requiring structured, real-world assessment of patients with complex autonomic and neurologic conditions.
Autonomic Nervous System Research
Investigations examining cardiovascular autonomic regulation, orthostatic intolerance, POTS phenotypes, physiologic responses to stress, and relationships between autonomic dysfunction and multisystem symptoms.
Concussion and Postconcussion Autonomic Dysfunction
Studies exploring autonomic abnormalities following traumatic brain injury, persistent postconcussion symptoms, exercise intolerance, and the potential relationships among neurologic, vestibular, and cardiovascular regulation.
Rehabilitation and Longitudinal Outcomes
Research evaluating rehabilitation responses, physiologic adaptation, functional recovery, exercise tolerance, and patient-reported outcomes over time.
Biomarkers and Physiologic Mechanisms
Collaborations investigating biological markers, inflammatory or immune-related mechanisms, neurovascular regulation, and other potential contributors to dysautonomia. We are especially interested in opportunities that connect clinical phenotypes and longitudinal observations with complementary biological investigations.
Opportunities for Clinical Research Partnerships
Depending on the objectives and requirements of a proposed study, potential partnerships may involve clinical recruitment, standardized assessment, longitudinal outcome collection, or coordination with external investigators for specialized testing and analysis.
NeuroSport may also serve as a community-based clinical research partner for appropriately designed studies that benefit from access to patients with POTS, dysautonomia, or persistent postconcussion symptoms.
Our interests include opportunities to contribute to multicenter investigations and collaborative projects in which clinical observations can inform broader scientific questions.
All proposed collaborations are evaluated with consideration for scientific merit, participant welfare, applicable research oversight, data protection, and the practical requirements of delivering high-quality patient care.
Building Research Partnerships That Matter
Our approach to collaboration is intentionally focused. We are most interested in partnerships with clearly defined scientific objectives, complementary expertise, and realistic expectations regarding clinical resources.
We believe the greatest value of collaboration comes from combining the strengths of different disciplines rather than duplicating efforts.
By connecting the experience of patients and clinicians with the expertise of scientific investigators, we hope to accelerate the development of meaningful evidence and improve our understanding of complex neurologic and autonomic conditions.
We welcome inquiries from researchers, universities, healthcare organizations, and scientific partners interested in exploring opportunities for responsible, clinically relevant collaboration.
Contact NeuroSport About Research
Connecting Patients, Clinicians, and Researchers to Advance Scientific Understanding
At NeuroSport Spine and Concussion Center, we believe that progress in understanding complex neurologic and autonomic conditions depends on meaningful connections between patients, healthcare professionals, and scientific investigators.
Our research initiatives reflect a commitment to examining important clinical questions, evaluating emerging rehabilitation approaches, and contributing to the growing body of scientific knowledge surrounding dysautonomia, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), and concussion.
We welcome inquiries from academic investigators, healthcare organizations, research institutions, and scientific collaborators who share our interest in advancing evidence-based approaches to patient care.
We also recognize that patients and families may be interested in learning more about our ongoing clinical research, including the Moreau POTS Protocol™ and opportunities for participation.
Research and Collaboration Inquiries
Whether you are a researcher exploring a potential partnership, a healthcare professional interested in our clinical investigations, or a patient seeking information about research participation, we encourage you to contact our team.
Research inquiries may include collaborative study proposals, clinical research partnerships, potential participant eligibility, or questions about NeuroSport's current research activities.
All research opportunities are considered in the context of scientific merit, participant protections, available clinical resources, and applicable ethical oversight.
From Clinical Questions to Meaningful Discovery
Our research philosophy begins with a simple observation: patients living with complex conditions deserve care informed by the best available evidence, and the unanswered questions encountered during clinical practice deserve thoughtful scientific investigation.
By maintaining a connection between clinical care and research, we hope to contribute knowledge that helps clinicians better understand these conditions and supports continued improvements in patient outcomes.
Every meaningful discovery begins with a question. We welcome the opportunity to explore those questions with others who share our commitment to advancing patient-centered research.
Contact NeuroSport Spine and Concussion Center to learn more about our research initiatives or discuss potential collaboration opportunities.