UC Sports Neuroscience Initiative Plans Concussion Events

The University of Cincinnati (UC) Sports Neuroscience Initiative will present a free program about concussion in contact sports Saturday, June 20, at the Richard E. Lindner Center on UC’s campus.

"Fear and Concussions—Training to Stop It” is a half-day event geared toward middle and high school coaches, athletic trainers, parents and athletes. Presented in association with the UC Neuroscience Institute, it will run from 8 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. at the Lindner Center, located between Nippert Stadium and Fifth Third Arena and home for all of UC’s sports programs. Snacks will be provided.

"There is a lot of fear associated with concussions in sports, and yet there are ways to help keep athletes safe from concussion,” says Jon Divine, MD, the Sports Neuroscience Initiative’s director and a professor in the UC Department of Orthopaedic Surgery who is also UC’s head team physician. Divine says the event will provide training, hands-on exercises and a preview of some of the hottest innovations being developed by researchers and engineers at UC. 

The UC Sports Neuroscience Initiative includes the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery’s Division of Sports Medicine, the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience and the Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine. It was formed in 2014 to achieve research breakthroughs that will enhance student-athletes’ health and safety.

Sessions at the event will include:

• Fear and Concussions: This session meets the Ohio Department of Health annual coaching education requirement and will cover defining concussions, concussion facts, concussion and kids and Ohio’s Return-to-Play Law. Cedric Peerman, special teams captain for the Cincinnati Bengals, will provide a player’s perspective of going through the concussion protocol, and vision training for injury prevention.

• Interactive Training: This session will cover sideline diagnosis, balance checks, rehabilitation techniques, post-injury management, vision training techniques and prevention training.

• Protecting Brains of the Future: This showcase of innovations will cover concussion biomarkers from the UC College of Medicine, concussion research from the College of Engineering and Applied Science, futuristic helmet designs from the College of Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning and projects from DAAP and the College of Nursing.

>> RSVP online 

For more information, call 513-584-3931.

On June 19, the day before the event, the Sports Neuroscience Initiative will hold its Sports Concussion Clinical Research Initiative for investigators involved in sports concussion research. The event will be held from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., with lunch provided, in the Bob Goin Football Team Meeting Room of the Lindner Center.

Attendees will hear investigator updates since the August 2014 session followed by introduction of new, interested investigators. The event will end with a brainstorming session for collaborative projects.

"We look forward to meeting again and sharing ideas, with the goal of becoming a powerful, unified collegiate research team that leads the country in sports concussion research,” says Divine.

Prospective attendees may RSVP by June 12 to Kim Hasselfeld.