{"id":6412,"date":"2010-01-21T13:37:08","date_gmt":"2010-01-21T18:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/busm-news\/?p=528"},"modified":"2010-01-21T13:37:08","modified_gmt":"2010-01-21T18:37:08","slug":"bu-brain-researchers-grapple-with-nfl-offer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/2010\/01\/21\/bu-brain-researchers-grapple-with-nfl-offer\/","title":{"rendered":"BU Brain Researchers Grapple with NFL Offer"},"content":{"rendered":"

League proposes $1 million for concussion research<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sunday afternoons have felt different for football fans lately, thanks in no small part to researchers at BU.<\/p>\n

A dramatic shift has altered the NFL culture over the past few months: rule changes, TV commentators pointing out dangerous hits, public service announcements about concussions, and star quarterbacks ordered to sit out important games after blows to the head. This stunning mid-season transformation has evolved from research at BU\u2019s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE) linking concussions to later-life brain disease.<\/p>\n

In the past, the league cast doubt on CSTE\u2019s claims and insisted it would conduct its own studies. But in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence, U.S. congressional hearings last October, and a slew of bad press, the NFL last month offered $1 million \u2014 or more \u2014 to fund CSTE\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

BU Today caught up with CSTE codirector Robert Stern, a School of Medicine associate professor of neurology and codirector of the Alzheimer\u2019s Disease Center\u2019s Clinical and Research Program, to ask about the ethical considerations of taking money from the NFL to study what has become its gravest liability in terms of athletes\u2019 health, as well as public relations: head trauma.<\/p>\n

\"Robert
Robert Stern, a codirector of BU\u2019s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, says he was shocked when the NFL offered CSTE $1 million to research the impact of concussions. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BU Today: What was your initial reaction to the NFL\u2019s offer?<\/p>\n

Stern: I was quite shocked. Dr. Robert Cantu, one of our codirectors, had been having high-level meetings with the NFL about their wish to support our research by encouraging current and retired players to serve as brain donors, as well as some rules changes they\u2019ve been making. We\u2019ve been in close touch, but never had money been mentioned.<\/p>\n

This from the same folks who once tried to discredit you?<\/p>\n

Not discredit, but they cast doubt on the link between repetitive head trauma and later-life disease. They weren\u2019t our fans, and we weren\u2019t necessarily their fans. However, since the October congressional hearings, they\u2019ve been making some unbelievable changes in dealing with the health of their players. For example, the two cochairs of their mild traumatic brain injury committee were forced to resign. One of them refused to acknowledge the link between head trauma and disease.<\/p>\n

Also, there have been unprecedented mid-season rule changes. Players showing any sign of concussion cannot return to play that day, whether to a game, or more strikingly, a practice. And there has to be an independent neurological specialist appointed for each team to diagnose and make decisions about return to play. To have Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner both sit out a game in a critical time of the season because of concussions would never have happened before. These are the two Superbowl quarterbacks from last year. There\u2019s still a huge need for more change, more awareness, and more research.<\/p>\n

Under what conditions, if any, would CSTE accept the NFL\u2019s money?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing formal proposed yet. We\u2019ve made it clear that the only way we could discuss the possibility would be if there were no strings attached, an unrestricted donation that would be free of any real or perceived conflict of interest. The most important thing is that we retain our complete independence and maintain terrific vigor in our research. As long as the wording is such that the donors don\u2019t have any say in the research, its interpretation, and publication of the results, then that makes it kosher.<\/p>\n

What would a million dollars mean to your research?<\/p>\n

It sounds like a lot of money, but this research is quite expensive. It would allow us to continue to examine the brains of deceased athletes, expand our infrastructure, expand our pilot data collection for clinical studies such as neuroimaging and cerebrospinal fluid measuring for proteins. It wouldn\u2019t necessarily allow us to do a major study, because research is much more expensive than that. But it would be a tremendous shot in the arm.<\/p>\n

What are your funding sources?<\/p>\n

Three basic sources: one was start-up money from BU\u2019s School of Medicine, as well as individual departments across MED, the School of Public Health, and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center. We also obtained two grants from the National Institute on Aging as supplements to our NIA-funded Alzheimer\u2019s Disease Center. Finally, we received a two-year grant from the National Operating Committee for Standards in Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE). The federal money thus far is around $200,000 and from NOCSAE it\u2019s around $250,000. I\u2019m in the midst of writing a grant for the National Institutes of Health, which is millions of dollars, to do an in-depth clinical study of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).<\/p>\n

Are you looking to historical precedents as you consider forging a financial relationship with a one-time nemesis?<\/p>\n

The analogy is the tobacco companies. Big Tobacco was funding research in the \u201960s and \u201970s, and because of their funding there was lots of conflict of interest about the results and how they could be interpreted.<\/p>\n

Concussion is \u2014 quote \u2014 a no-brainer. The more times you hit your head, the more likely there is to be something wrong in the future. We just want to find out what the specifics are and how to cure and prevent it.<\/p>\n

This BU Today<\/em> article was written by Caleb Daniloff. He can be reached at cdanilof@bu.edu.<\/p>\n

<!–[if !mso]><\/span> <! st1:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } –> <\/p>\n

BU Brain Researchers Grapple with NFL Offer<\/p>\n

League proposes $1 million for concussion research<\/p>\n

Sunday afternoons have felt different for football fans lately, thanks in no small part to researchers at BU.<\/p>\n

A dramatic shift has altered the NFL culture over the past few months: rule changes, TV commentators pointing out dangerous hits, public service announcements about concussions, and star quarterbacks ordered to sit out important games after blows to the head. This stunning mid-season transformation has evolved from research at BU\u2019s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE) linking concussions to later-life brain disease.<\/p>\n

In the past, the league cast doubt on CSTE\u2019s claims and insisted it would conduct its own studies. But in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence, U.S. congressional hearings last October, and a slew of bad press, the NFL last month offered $1 million \u2014 or more \u2014 to fund CSTE\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

BU Today<\/em> caught up with CSTE codirector Robert Stern, a School of Medicine associate professor of neurology and codirector of the Alzheimer\u2019s Disease Center<\/a>\u2019s Clinical and Research Program, to ask about the ethical considerations of taking money from the NFL to study what has become its gravest liability in terms of athletes\u2019 health, as well as public relations: head trauma.<\/p>\n

BU Today<\/em>: What was your initial reaction to the NFL\u2019s offer?
\nStern:<\/strong> I was quite shocked. Dr. Robert Cantu, one of our codirectors, had been having high-level meetings with the NFL about their wish to support our research by encouraging current and retired players to serve as brain donors, as well as some rules changes they\u2019ve been making. We\u2019ve been in close touch, but never had money been mentioned.<\/p>\n

This from the same folks who once tried to discredit you?<\/strong>
\nNot discredit, but they cast doubt on the link between repetitive head trauma and later-life disease. They weren\u2019t our fans, and we weren\u2019t necessarily their fans. However, since the October congressional hearings, they\u2019ve been making some unbelievable changes in dealing with the health of their players. For example, the two cochairs of their mild traumatic brain injury committee were forced to resign. One of them refused to acknowledge the link between head trauma and disease.<\/p>\n

Also, there have been unprecedented mid-season rule changes. Players showing any sign of concussion cannot return to play that day, whether to a game, or more strikingly, a practice. And there has to be an independent neurological specialist appointed for each team to diagnose and make decisions about return to play. To have Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner both sit out a game in a critical time of the season because of concussions would never have happened before. These are the two Superbowl quarterbacks from last year. There\u2019s still a huge need for more change, more awareness, and more research.<\/p>\n

Under what conditions, if any, would CSTE accept the NFL\u2019s money?<\/strong>
\nThere\u2019s nothing formal proposed yet. We\u2019ve made it clear that the only way we could discuss the possibility would be if there were no strings attached, an unrestricted donation that would be free of any real or perceived conflict of interest. The most important thing is that we retain our complete independence and maintain terrific vigor in our research. As long as the wording is such that the donors don\u2019t have any say in the research, its interpretation, and publication of the results, then that makes it kosher.<\/p>\n

What would a million dollars mean to your research?<\/strong>
\nIt sounds like a lot of money, but this research is quite expensive. It would allow us to continue to examine the brains of deceased athletes, expand our infrastructure, expand our pilot data collection for clinical studies such as neuroimaging and cerebrospinal fluid measuring for proteins. It wouldn\u2019t necessarily allow us to do a major study, because research is much more expensive than that. But it would be a tremendous shot in the arm.<\/p>\n

What are your funding sources?<\/strong>
\nThree basic sources: one was start-up money from BU\u2019s School of Medicine, as well as individual departments across MED, the School of Public Health, and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center. We also obtained two grants from the National Institute on Aging as supplements to our NIA-funded Alzheimer\u2019s Disease Center. Finally, we received a two-year grant from the National Operating Committee for Standards in Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE). The federal money thus far is around $200,000 and from NOCSAE it\u2019s around $250,000. I\u2019m in the midst of writing a grant for the National Institutes of Health<\/a>, which is millions of dollars, to do an in-depth clinical study of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).<\/p>\n

Are you looking to historical precedents as you consider forging a financial relationship with a one-time nemesis? <\/strong>
\nThe analogy is the tobacco companies. Big Tobacco was funding research in the \u201960s and \u201970s, and because of their funding there was lots of conflict of interest about the results and how they could be interpreted.<\/p>\n

Concussion is \u2014 quote \u2014 a no-brainer. The more times you hit your head, the more likely there is to be something wrong in the future. We just want to find out what the specifics are and how to cure and prevent it.<\/p>\n

Caleb Daniloff can be reached at cdanilof@bu.edu<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Sunday afternoons have felt different for football fans lately, thanks in no small part to researchers at BU.<\/p>\n

A dramatic shift has altered the NFL culture over the past few months: rule changes, TV commentators pointing out dangerous hits, public service announcements about concussions, and star quarterbacks ordered to sit out important games after blows to the head. This stunning mid-season transformation has evolved from research at BU\u2019s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE) linking concussions to later-life brain disease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":903,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[91],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6412"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/903"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6412\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}