Press release:  USA Hockey takes gold at Brain Fit­ness Inno­va­tion Awards, All­state & Nation­wide Mutual Insur­ance runners-up

San Fran­cisco, May 24th, 2010: The USA Hockey National Team Devel­op­ment Pro­gram (NTDP) flexed its brain mus­cle by tak­ing the top medal in Sharp­Brains first annual Brain Fit­ness Inno­va­tion Awards.

Designed to fos­ter inno­va­tion and best prac­tice shar­ing, the Awards cel­e­brate out­stand­ing pio­neers apply­ing neuroplasticity-based research and tools in the ‘real world.’ Put on by inde­pen­dent mar­ket research firm Sharp­Brains of San Fran­cisco, the Awards rec­og­nize orga­ni­za­tions devis­ing and imple­ment­ing results-oriented, scal­able ini­tia­tives demon­strat­ing com­mit­ment to the brain fit­ness of orga­ni­za­tion clients, mem­bers, patients, stu­dents or employ­ees — and show­case inno­v­a­tive uses of non-invasive tools to improve cog­ni­tive and emo­tional func­tions.
The podium’s top posi­tion went to USA Hockey National Team Devel­op­ment Pro­gram (NTDP), a full-time devel­op­ment pro­gram aimed at prepar­ing student-athletes for par­tic­i­pa­tion on the US National Under-18 and Under-17 Teams, for its inno­v­a­tive cog­ni­tive train­ing sys­tem designed with the help of Applied Cog­ni­tive Engi­neer­ing (ACE) and the BIRD Foun­da­tion to help hockey play­ers develop per­cep­tion and decision-making skills. More than two years in the mak­ing and $2 mil­lion to pro­duce, the Hockey Intel­li­Gym offers play­ers a video-game-like train­ing envi­ron­ment to enhance ‘hockey-sense’-the infor­ma­tion gath­ered from sur­round­ings to make and exe­cute play­ing deci­sions on-ice. Accord­ing to sta­tis­tics, Intel­li­Gym train­ing helped NTDP teams win more games than non-trained teams.

Judges selected the entry for its inspir­ing team approach-an inter­sec­tion between spe­cial­ist, coach and player. To adapt such a pro­gram and demon­strate its impact on real-life per­for­mance, they felt, opened new oppor­tu­ni­ties for exten­sion to other sports and every­day life.

“We’re extremely hon­ored that the Hockey Intel­li­Gym is being rec­og­nized with this pres­ti­gious award,” said Dave Ogrean, exec­u­tive direc­tor of USA Hockey. “Together with ACE and the BIRD Foun­da­tion, we’re proud to have devel­oped what is a truly inno­v­a­tive train­ing prod­uct that helps enhance the decision-making skills of our athletes.”

Entries from All­state and Nation­wide Mutual Insur­ance rounded out the competition’s other top-performers. Nation­wide Mutual Insurance’s ‘Healthy Hol­i­day Chal­lenge’ offered a Web based tool-MyBrainSolutions-to help employ­ees enhance pos­i­tiv­ity, emo­tional resilience and deal with oth­ers more effec­tively — all key ele­ments to productivity. In Penn­syl­va­nia, All­state invited selected dri­vers, 50 years and older, to help val­i­date the impact tar­geted cog­ni­tive train­ing such as Posit Sci­ence InSight can have on dri­ving safety in an effort to pre­vent injuries, save lives, enable older peo­ple to main­tain their inde­pen­dence longer and pro­vide peace of mind to adult chil­dren faced with dif­fi­cult deci­sions as par­ents age.

The remain­ing Top 10 Final­ists included (in alpha­bet­i­cal order):

• AAA Foun­da­tion for Traf­fic Safety
• Arrow­smith School
• Men­tal Health Asso­ci­a­tion of Rock­land County
• Oak­land Uni­fied School District
• Saint Luke’s Brain and Stroke Institute
• SCAN Health Plan
• Uni­ver­sity Behav­ioral HealthCare

In its first year, the com­pe­ti­tion showed con­sid­er­able promise with 40 entries from pres­ti­gious orga­ni­za­tions and com­pa­nies around the world. “We’re delighted to have so many entries which show­case that brain fit­ness is for every­one at any age,” said Sharp­Brains’ CEO and Co-Founder Alvaro Fer­nan­dez. “The brain fit­ness field is still in its infancy but given today’s longer life spans and the accom­pa­ny­ing desire to make those years healthy and pro­duc­tive, we believe it’s impor­tant to rec­og­nize those orga­ni­za­tions pio­neer­ing the way and adding to col­lec­tive learning.”

-> To down­load full PRESS KIT, click Here (includes logos, FAQ, ini­tia­tive descrip­tions, PR contacts).

A full 200+ page mar­ket report detail­ing all ten final­ist case stud­ies in the con­text of over­all research and mar­ket trends will be avail­able next month.

Press con­tact:
Rebecca Brink
PR Rep — Sharp­Brains
rebecca at brinkcon­sult­ing dot biz

About Sharp­Brains and the Brain Fit­ness Inno­va­tion Awards

Sharp­Brains is an inde­pen­dent mar­ket research firm cov­er­ing the emerg­ing brain fit­ness and cog­ni­tive health mar­ket. Its flag­ship indus­try report The State of the Brain Fit­ness Soft­ware Mar­ket and con­sumer guide The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness help deci­sion mak­ers and con­sumers nav­i­gate the emerg­ing brain fit­ness field based on evidence-based infor­ma­tion and inde­pen­dent analy­sis. The orga­ni­za­tion also hosts the 3-day online global and vir­tual Sharp­Brains Sum­mit, a first of its kind con­fer­ence, engag­ing pro­fes­sion­als across the globe on the state of cog­ni­tive fit­ness research, tech­nol­ogy and mar­ket trends. SharpBrains.com, the firm’s edu­ca­tional blog and web­site, is a mem­ber of the Sci­en­tific Amer­i­can Part­ner Network.

Designed to fos­ter inno­va­tion and best prac­tice shar­ing, the Awards cel­e­brate out­stand­ing pio­neers apply­ing neuroplasticity-based research and tools in the ‘real world’. Put on by inde­pen­dent mar­ket research firm Sharp­Brains of San Fran­cisco, the Awards rec­og­nize orga­ni­za­tions devis­ing and imple­ment­ing results-oriented, scal­able ini­tia­tives demon­strat­ing com­mit­ment to the brain fit­ness of orga­ni­za­tion clients, mem­bers, patients, stu­dents or employees-and show­case inno­v­a­tive uses of non-invasive tools to improve cog­ni­tive and emo­tional functions.

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