AUTHORS RESPOND: Sports-related concussion: Truth be told

  • Brian Hainline, National Collegiate Athletic Association,
  • William W. Dexter, MD, FACSM, American College of Sports Medicine; and John DiFiori, MD, American Medical Society for Sports Medicine
Submitted June 21, 2014
We agree with Dr. Sethi that athletes must receive medical care that is transparent and without a conflict of interest. We stated such in our editorial.1 There is a palpable shift in this direction because of a combination of a heightened awareness regarding conflict of interest problems in sport and because medical organizations are working together to address this issue. Equally important, and also addressed by Dr. Sethi, is the search for objective biomarkers of concussion that correlate with diagnosis and prognosis. So long as concussion diagnosis is driven by clinical symptoms, there will exist a "relativity scale" among athletes, sports medicine clinicians, parents, and coaches regarding the perceived importance of each symptom.

Disclosures: B. Hainline reports no disclosures. W.W. Dexter serves as Web Alert Editor for Current Sports Medicine Reports and on the editorial board of the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine, receives publishing royalties from UpToDate, is the Director of Sports Medicine at Maine Medical Center, and serves on the advisory board for Cambria Health. J.P. DiFiori serves as an Associate Editor of the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine and as a Section Editor for Current Sports Medicine Reports.

Reference

1. Hainline B, Dexter WW, DiFiori J. Sports-related concussion: truth be told. Neurol Clin Pract 2013;3:277-278.

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