Due to the many concussion-related issues the National Football League has been facing in recent years they are taking steps to help research and advance the science of concussions.
In September of 2013, the NFL donated $30 million to the Foundation for National Institutes of Health to advance medical research on brain injuries. It was the single largest donation to any NFL organization in history. Then, the NFL and GE launched a four-year, $60 million collaboration called the Head Health Initiative. The initiative is used to accelerate diagnosis and improve treatment for traumatic brain injury by finding new technologies and innovations in the space.
The NFL also partnered with the CFL to implement the King-Devick Test to improve the ability of diagnosing concussions with sideline screening tests. In August 2015, the NFL donated $2.5 million to UW Medicine to establish a Sports Health and Safety Institute to further research, education and advocacy for the prevention and treatment of sports-related concussions.
And just this past weekend, the NFL announced their latest partnership with the International Concussion and Head Injury Research Foundation (ICHIRF) at the 2nd Annual International Profession Sports Concussion Research Think Tank in London. ICHIRF wants to focus on learning more about the long-term effects of concussions years after an athlete has retired. The Think Tank serves as a platform for international sports organizations to propose ideas for research collaborations and to share practices and progress.
The study is set to launch in January 2016 and will be led by Dr. Michael Turner, Medical Director of the ICHIRF. “Concussion is an issue for many high impact sports, none more so than horse racing,” said Turner. “Collaboration with the NFL will significantly accelerate the research we are doing with retired jockeys and help establish if there is any independent evidence that concussion has a long-term impact on health.”
The study hopes to find the link between concussions and CTE in retired athlete, who suffer greater rates of brain trauma. CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, is an incurable brain degenerative disease. The study will also include research on athletes from other high impact sports.
Dr. Richard Ellenbogen, chairman of the University of Washington’s Department of Neurological Surgery and co-chairman of the NFL’s Head, Neck and Spine Committee commented, “Partnerships of this nature will result in ground-breaking research that will allow us to better understand the science on concussion, which is rapidly evolving.”
