This past weekend, the town of Joshua, Texas mourned the death of a high school football player after he got a head injury during a game.
Head injuries have become a major concern for football players. So much so that parents are refusing to let their kids play – even in Texas, where football is king.
The University Interscholastic League oversees high school football, and they have updated their concussion management protocol to reflect growing concerns about head injuries. But researchers say the organization’s data is lacking.
Dr. Munro Cullum, a clinical neuropsychologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, heads a team that wants to fix the problem by creating a statewide concussion registry in Texas.
“We don’t really know how many concussions – or suspected concussions – are occurring out there,” Cullum says. “So we have no idea on the base rate of this injury.”
Cullum says this a problem because when new protective gear and regulations are implemented to combat these concussions, there is no way to tell if there is any impact.
What you’ll hear in this segment:
– Concerns about privacy in this initiative
– Advantages of a statewide registry
– The plans for the future of this registry
Post by John Flynn.
