On Tuesday the NCAA and the Defense Department announced a $30 million dollar effort to create a comprehensive concussion database. The research will be managed by the Concussion Assessment, Research and Education Consortium and co-chaired by three universities—with the Medical College of Wisconsin being one of those three.
Indiana and Michigan will also be involved in chairing the CAREC. According to CBSSports.com, the Medical College of Wisconsin (not affiliated with the University of Wisconsin) will lead studies looking at head impact sensor technologies, advanced neuroimaging and biological markers related to concussions.
While the other two universities chairing the consortium will have specific roles too. Indiana will provide fiduciary oversight and data and analysis management, bioinformatics, biospecimen and clinical trial support. Michigan will lead the longitudinal clincal study of the history of concussions among college athletes.
Concussions have been a hot topic as of late, with the Big Ten partnering with the Ivy League to study head injuries beginning back in 2012. The NCAA is also in the midst of a lawsuit over how it has handled information about concussions in the past, something they are in settlement talks over.
However, this latest effort is perhaps the most comprehensive initiative and collaboration we’ve ever seen on concussions. There are three huge parts to this initiative outside of the research consortium we’ve mentioned already:
• The National Institutes of Health is starting a new effort to detect and measure the longterm effects of repetitive concussions. The clinical trials are aided by $16 million from the NFL, fulfilling the NFL’s $30 million commitment to NIH in 2012.
• The National Institute of Standards and Technology will invest $5 million over five years as part of the Materials Genome Initiative to accelerate the development of advanced materials for better concussion protections.
• Pop Warner will have 100 teams participate in a pilot program tracking concussions in youth football.
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