Funds sought for comprehensive concussion care program

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Concussion experts and California Interscholastic Federation officials are seeking about $2.15 million in private financing for a first-of-its-kind concussion care insurance program that is being spearheaded by a UCLA neurologist.

Dr. Tony L. Strickland, chief executive officer of the Los Angeles-based Sports Concussion Institute and an associate clinical professor of neurology at the UCLA School of Medicine, outlined the proposed program this evening at the LAX Westin on the eve of a national concussion summit at the hotel. The program is being administered by Wells Fargo and could be implemented as soon as the 2009-10 school year if the funding is secured.

For only $2.93 per student per year, the state’s 735,503 high school athletes would have access to baseline neurobehavioral function testing, followup care and post-concussion testing that would allow doctors to determine if an athlete could safely return to play following an episode of head trauma.

‘It is going to revolutionize health care and remove any barrier to treatment,’ said Strickland, whose institute has already helped the CIF provide baseline testing for 100,000 of the state’s athletes.

Among those in attendance during an informal meeting in the hotel’s presidential suite was super agent Leigh Steinberg, who said he would contribute to the program. Steinberg said he was frightened by the debilitating effects concussions had taken on many of his clients and recalled former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman repeatedly asking the same set of questions after being hospitalized following a concussion.

Steinberg called concussions an ‘undiagnosed health epidemic’ exacerbated by athletes’ play-at-all-costs mentality and said he would like the government to mandate this kind of program nationwide as a requirement for participation in sports.

--Ben Bolch