BUSM’s Cantu Named Sports Medicine Award Winner

Robert Cantu, MD,  clinical professor of neurosurgery at Boston University School of Medicine and co-director of BU’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE), has been named the 2009 United States Sports Academy Ernst Jokl Sports Medicine Award winner.

Dr. Cantu is known for his work on catastrophic head and neck injuries, concussions and post concussive syndrome. He established a grading scale for concussions (Grades 1, 2 and 3), based on symptoms at the time of injury. His background on the subject has provided medical professionals with much-needed guidelines where previously none had existed. He is sought by media regarding the National Football League’s policies on concussions and studies that link head injuries on the football field with brain disease.

The Dr. Ernst Jokl Sports Medicine Award is named in honor of a former Olympic athlete, international sports medicine scholar and Director of the University of Kentucky Rehabilitation Center. It is given annually to an individual for his or her contributions to the growth and development of sports medicine through practice and/or scholarly activity. The individual should exhibit a mastery of some aspect of sports medicine through practice or research, be well known in the sports medicine field and have an abiding belief in and practice of ethical behavior in pursuit of knowledge.

The United States Sports Academy is an independent, nonprofit, accredited, special mission sports university created to serve the nation and the world with programs in instruction, research and service. The role of the Academy is to prepare men and women for careers in the profession of sports.