In This Issue
Spring Bridge on Concussion: A National Challenge
April 12, 2016 Volume 46 Issue 1
Articles In This Issue
  • Tuesday, April 12, 2016
    AuthorP. Hunter Peckham and Thomas F. Budinger

    Editor's Note

    The rising incidence of brain trauma from sports, military blasts, vehicle collisions, and falls prompted the faculties of Case Western Reserve University and its associated medical care programs in Ohio to convene a symposium, with the National Academy of Engineering and ...

  • Tuesday, April 12, 2016
    AuthorThomas F. Budinger

    Editor’s Note

    This paper summarizes a symposium on concussion held at Case Western Reserve University on June 23–24, 2015, and supported in part by the National Academies of Engineering and Medicine.1 It reviews evidence for the seriousness of the problem of concussion (also called ...

  • Tuesday, April 12, 2016
    AuthorJay L. Alberts

    A significant challenge in the diagnosis and management of athletes and military personnel with concussion is the diverse background, training,

     clinical management approach and outcomes used by the multidisciplinary team of clinicians involved. Further challenging the continuity of care is ...

  • Tuesday, April 12, 2016
    AuthorJeffrey J. Bazarian

    The current method of diagnosing a concussion on the athletic field, battlefield, or even in the emergency department is unreliable and likely inaccurate: It relies on self-report of symptoms from the person who is injured or from a witness, if there is one. The symptoms that indicate concussion ...

  • Tuesday, April 12, 2016
    AuthorRobert C. Cantu

    A person can have functional abnormalities of the brain in the absence of symptoms and a diagnosis of concussion. This creates particular risks for athletes, as injury may go undetected during and even after a drill or game.

    What can be done to reduce the risk of concussion and subconcussive head ...

  • Tuesday, April 12, 2016
    AuthorDallas C. Hack

    More than 30 clinical trials of pharmaceutical products to treat traumatic brain injury (TBI) have failed and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved any diagnostics or therapies for TBI.

    Since 2007 the Department of Defense (DOD) has been the largest funder of TBI research. ...

  • Tuesday, April 12, 2016
    AuthorBrian W. Hainline

    The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is the national governing body of intercollegiate varsity athletics. About 460,000 student-athletes from 1,100 schools are involved in the organization, which represents 23 sports and 90 national championships. The NCAA has taken a leadership role ...

  • Tuesday, April 12, 2016
    AuthorS. Krisztian Kovacs

    Explosive blast–related traumatic brain injury (TBI), specifically primary blast- or shockwave-related TBI, is highly prevalent among military personnel. The majority of battlefield wounds in 21st century military conflicts are due to explosive devices—in the recent wars in Iraq and ...

  • Tuesday, April 12, 2016
    AuthorSusan S. Margulies

    Biomechanics can provide insight into the mechanisms of concussion, including the interrelationships among the forces experienced during impact, head and neck movements, tissue stiffness of the materials that compose the head/neck complex, deformation of structures at the macroscopic and ...

  • Tuesday, April 12, 2016
    AuthorJeffrey P. Michael

    In the past 10 years, traffic deaths have dropped by about 25 percent (NHTSA 2015b), which is a remarkable public health improvement in a short period of time. Even so, nearly 90 people die and 2.3 million are injured every day in motor vehicle crashes in the United States (NHTSA 2015c). The ...

  • Tuesday, April 12, 2016
    AuthorDaniel P. Perl

    Traumatic brain injury (TBI) represents a major public health issue in the United States: it is estimated that 5.3 million Americans have long-term disabilities related to a TBI (Thurman et al. 1999), equivalent to the number of patients with Alzheimer’s disease (Alzheimer’s Association ...

  • Tuesday, April 12, 2016
    AuthorRaúl A. Radovitzky, James Q. Zheng, and Thomas F. Budinger

    The goal of our research is to determine the forces transmitted to the brain resulting from the stress field of a military blast, fall, or sport or vehicle collision involving the head. This information is essential to link the external insult to the mechanism of brain tissue injury.

    ...

  • Tuesday, April 12, 2016
    AuthorDouglas H. Smith

    The interchangeable terms concussion and mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) denote the phenomenon of a change in brain function associated with blunt trauma to the head or body. Beyond the fact that concussion can occur without the victim losing consciousness, researchers are only just beginning to ...

  • Tuesday, April 12, 2016

    Tom Scholz is a musician, inventor, engineer, philanthropist, and founder of the band Boston.


    RON LATANISION (RML): We are delighted to speak with someone who is both a mechanical engineering student from MIT and a rock icon. Music is certainly part of our social fabric that everyone appreciates, ...