BEST
Brain Evaluation Solutions & Testing
BEST South Africa
Victoria Alexander is a registered Neuropsychologist and Counselling Psychologist with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) (publication name Whitefield-Alexander). She is in private practice in Cape Town where she treats both individuals and families focussing on a range of areas including eating disorders, depression, anxiety, trauma, stress management and personal development using the Schema Mode Model of treatment. In addition to her private practice, Victoria is involved as a partner in the concussion management business trading under the name of BEST (Brain Evaluations Solutions and Testing).
Victoria completed her doctoral thesis under the supervision of Professor Ann Edwards on the long-term and cumulative effects of mild traumatic brain injury amongst high school contact sports players. She has co-authored a number of articles and conference presentations on the neurocognitive sequelae of sports concussion in the national and international arenas. Over the past 17 years she has operated as chief research officer providing technical assistance for the implementation of computer based neurocognitive testing on the nation-wide concussion management projects currently in progress under the coordination of Professor Ann Edwards. Victoria has a wealth of experience in the neurocognitive assessment of concussion having worked with thousands of athletes. She has been instrumental in facilitating the mandatory use of neurocognitive testing for concussion management of players of contact sports in a number of leading South African schools and professional teams both locally and internationally.
Ann Edwards is a registered Neuropsychologist and Clinical Psychologist with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) (publication name Shuttleworth-Edwards). She is an Emeritus Professor of Psychology from Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa, where she continues to work in a research post. She currently lives in Cape Town where she conducts medico-legal assessments for road accident and medical negligence cases involving traumatic brain injury, while also participating as a partner in the concussion management business trading under the name of BEST (Brain Evaluations Solutions and Testing).
After training as a Clinical Psychologist at the University of Cape Town (1984) Ann worked as a Clinical Psychologist in the Department of Neurosurgery at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town (1984-1989). While working in a full-time academic post at Rhodes University from 1989 to 2007, she was Director of the Rhodes University Psychology Clinic and Clinical training. She has published extensively and is on the editorial boards of the Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, and the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology. Her chief research areas are: concussion sequelae in association with participation in a contact sport; the collection of demographically focused normative data for commonly employed tests of cognitive function.
She is a longstanding executive member of the South African Clinical Neuropsychological Association, where she contributes on academic issues, research opportunities, training and credentialing in clinical neuropsychology.
Ann has been involved in the neuropsychological investigation of brain dysfunction in clinical contexts for more than 35 years, and more specifically has focused on the management of sports concussion clinically, as well as being a research leader on research into the concussive injury for more than 17 years.
For a more detailed curriculum vitae, and list of publications go to: Professional Wards
Christi Prost is the Business Director of BEST. Her motivation comes from a family background of business entrepreneurship, and from having always been a sports lover, participating in as many different sports as possible. Currently, her business interests are developing beyond the sports arena, into medical and occupational forums.
Christi started Prost Concussion in 2014 and grew the business by securing many schools around the Gauteng area, which translated into managing thousands of athletes yearly. This provided her with significant experience in managing the challenges of neurocognitive evaluation and appreciating the value of neuropsychological management of brain injury. Christi has always been interested in business and the establishment of new working relationships, describing herself as an idealist, who is forever receptive to any opportunities that come her way. Her entrepreneurial roots have been instilled by her father whose business acumen she has come to respect immensely.
Christi is committed to building BEST into a company that makes its name by helping thousands of athletes, as well as facilitating the medical management of patients in clinics, and the health management of employees in occupational settings, using state-of-the-art neurocognitive test products in conjunction with designing the best possible protocols for the administration and interpretation thereof.
She believes that the development of BEST will be an enterprise that can truly benefit and help individuals in sports, medical and occupational settings. She has significant strengths in working with people of all ages, and is committed to facilitating the growth of state-of-the-art neuropsychological services in a spectrum of arenas while working closely in conjunction with the two specialist neuropsychologists on the team.
BEST Australia
Samantha Prost has a BA degree in Human Movement Science, is a Weight Management consultant (Australia), a Functional Movement Screening practitioner and a member of the International Brain Injury Association.
Sam has over ten years of experience working in healthcare, across a broad range of fields including sports rehabilitation, obesity management and designing and implementing professional sports/fitness and rehabilitation programmes throughout South Africa and Australia. She has a background in playing elite sport where she has represented South Africa in hockey throughout her junior career and has played in the professional hockey league in Belgium and Australia. Through her exposure to the high impact sport of hockey, notorious for head injury, she has witnessed many players suffer concussions and undergo recovery.
Sam’s passion for improvement in the understanding and treatment of concussive head injury has been ignited by her own diagnosis of a traumatic brain injury. Sam credits her personal journey throughout the year-long recovery for providing her insight into the impact that brain injuries have beyond the clinical, but also on the social, working and sporting life of the individual. Sam’s experiences have motivated her to embrace a shift in career to concussion management, where she offers extensive neurocognitive baseline and concurrent follow up testing programmes.
Sam is currently Key accounts and Business manager of BEST (Brain Evaluation Solutions and Testing) Australia. She firmly believes that the programme offered by BEST Australia, driven by top neuropsychologists and medical doctors, has the potential to facilitate favourable outcomes following concussion events, including best-practice return to sport and activity recommendations, and reducing the risk of further injury prior to adequate recovery. In addition to the clear benefits of the BEST Australia programme for elite level athletes, Sam advocates wide adoption of the programme at all levels.
Karley began her career working in private practice as a Chiropractor in Perth, WA after completing a double degree in Chiropractic at Murdoch University, WA. She then went on to complete post-graduate study in Paediatrics and was awarded a Diplomate in Chiropractic Paediatrics. Karley has over 15 years of experience treating children, adults and athletes, and a further five years teaching neurodevelopmental programs for children.
Karley’s passion for neurodevelopment lead her to move into a career in neuromodulation and non-invasive brain- based therapies and for the past seven years she has worked as a Senior Clinician at the Perth Brain Centre. She has pursued further study in Quantitative Electroencephalography (QEEG) Brain-Mapping (board-certified by The International QEEG Certification Board) and has spent time in the USA to complete her Fellowship in Trans-Cranial Direct Current Stimulation, endorsed by the City College of New York and University of Florida. Karley has also completed a Certificate in Applied Neuroscience and Brain Health through the Neuroscience Academy, led by renowned Neuroscientist Dr Sarah McKay.
After witnessing the effects of concussion and post-concussion syndrome on many patients over her years as a health professional, Karley developed an interest in the assessment and management of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). She is an advocate for neurocognitive baseline testing as an important element of a comprehensive protocol to measure function and recovery from concussion, particularly in that of young adults. As a parent of children who have played a wide variety of sport, she understands how critical it is to have a measure of their neurocognitive baseline each year, should a concussion occur.
She is currently Clinical and operations manager. Karley is a member of the International Brain Injury Association and the Australian and New Zealand Mental Health Association and regularly attends Professional Development including those directed by the Neuroscience Academy, the Neuro Orthopaedic Institute and Sports Medicine Australia.