Dr Fong categorizes improvements two ways. Patient reports are one. The other is a repeat of the fMRI. If she sees the brain functioning in the fMRI image in accordance with her 'normal' database, she considers it an improvement.

The patient reports are subjective and hard to substantiate. There have been self-reporting concussion symptoms check lists for 2 decades (SCAT I). They do not necessarily reflect the brain under stress or at its worst performance. Self-reporting in a therapy setting can tend to cause a bias toward improvement as the therapist reinforces the value of small improvements during therapy sessions.

I wish she was more forthcoming about these issues. Her claim to her high success rate flies in the face of every other protocol. She did not invent the holy grail of concussion recovery for every patient.

Keep in mind that 85% recover spontaneously in 6 weeks or so. How many of her successes are in that 85% ?