The election of the International Brain Injury Association (IBIA) Executive Committee was held by the incoming IBIA Board of Governors. The results are as follows:

Chairman: David Arciniegas, MD
Vice Chair: Nathan Zasler, MD
Secretary: Lisandro Olmos, MD, PhD
Treasurer: Bruce Stern, Esq.
BOG Liaison: Jennie Ponsford, PhD
I am honored to have been re-elected to serve as treasurer for IBIA.
Continue Reading International Brain Injury Association Elects New Officers

The good news is that most if not all states have passed a version of Washington State’s Zackery Lystedt law which is helping to educate high school athletic coaches, trainers, parents, and athletes about concussions and return to play.  The bad news, is that still, despite the passage of this legislation and a great deal of public information, new research finds that only 69% of student athletes that were surveyed in the study still played with concussion symptoms.  According to a recent news release, two studies published this month in the American Journal of Sports Medicine, that athletes were still returning to play much too soon.  Please continue reading to see a full copy of the press release about this study.…

Continue Reading Does Concussion Education Help Make Student Athletes Safer?

I was honored to be reelected to another term as a member of the International Brain Injury Association (IBIA) Board of Governors. IBIA is dedicated to the development and support of multi-disciplinary medical and clinical professionals, advocates, policy makers, consumers, and others who work to improve outcomes and opportunities for persons with brain injury.
Continue Reading Stern Elected to International Brain Injury Association Board of Governors

As part of the hockey concussion education project, researchers used MRI diffusion tensor imaging to examine the brain’s white matter microstructure in ice hockey players with a history of clinically symptomatic concussion compared with players without a history of concussion.
Continue Reading DTI Used to Examine the Brain’s White Matter Microstructure in Ice Hockey Players

The hockey concussion education project under the leadership of Dr. Paul Echlin and in collaboration with a team from Harvard Medical School/Bingham and the women’s hospital/Massachusetts General Hospital/Athinoula A. Martinos Center for biomedical imaging/Western University of Canada had published new findings from an advanced MRI analysis of male and female collegiate ice hockey athletes. According to their press release:…
Continue Reading Advanced MRI Used to Study Effects of Concussion

In doing research for a brief on the admissibility of DTI and NeuroQuant, I came upon an article from June 2013, entitled Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: Longitudinal Regional Brain Volume Changes from the Department of Radiology, NYU School of Medicine. Yongxia Zhou, PhD, Andrea Kierans, MD Damon Kenul, BS. , Yulin Ge, MD,., Joseph Rath, BS, Joseph Reaume, BS Robert I. Grossman MD, and Yvonne W. Lui, MD. Radiology Vol. 267, No.3 (June 2013).
Continue Reading Objective Documentation of Brain Damage in MTBI One Year Post Injury

A new study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry out of Denmark found an increase in risk for all psychiatric outcomes after brain injury. The Danish researchers investigated the relationship between head injury and subsequent psychiatric disorders.
Continue Reading Mild Brain Injury Increases Risks for All Psychiatric Outcomes

Two separate courts in Minnesota have upheld the introduction of testimony regarding abnormalities found on diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). In the case of Nelson v. BNSF Railway Company, Court file number: 27‑CV‑12‑9171, October 1, 2013, defendants filed a motion in limine to bar the testimony of Dr. Joseph Wu, a neuro imaging expert. Dr. Woo interpreted a DTI of plaintiff and concluded that the DTI findings were consistent with a mild traumatic brain injury. The trial court rejected defendant’s motion, permitting Dr. Wu to testify and permitting plaintiff to introduce the results of the DTI.
Continue Reading Minnesota Courts Uphold Introduction of DTI Evidence