This past week we held an activity that examined the scientific evidence in the field of traumatic brain injury as relates to professional football. This activity was funded by the NFL. The NFL Player’s Association (NFLPA) also was supportive and contributed to the conference in numerous ways. The activity was designed to review and understand the state of the science as it exists today and to help establish a research agenda for the future. The activity was not a policy activity, but in the end the hope is that better science might inform policy.
The conference was opened by welcomes from both the Dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Dr Edward Miller and Commissioner Goddell. The conference was led by Kostas Lyketsos, MD.
Dr Lyketsos opened the meeting with a broad review of the topic as well as explained the evidence-based scoring system chosen to assess the published literature. Four plenary sessions followed. At the end of the conference areas for future research were established and prioritized.
