‘Baseline’ Neurocognitive Gimmickry Is Nothing More Than ‘Teaching to the Concussion Test’
July 28, 2011‘NFL Fans Should Worry About More Than One Kind of “Blackout”‘ (full text)
July 29, 2011
Alan Schwarz, reporter, The New York Times
“NYT has led [coverage of the concussion story] for three years. What are u talking about?”
George Vecsey, columnist, The New York Times
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Word is leaking to the general public that “concussion management” software systems are magic shows, not public health solutions.
The Chicago Tribune‘s solid health reporter, Julie Deardorff, was the first major newspaper journalist I noticed writing about the clinical journal research which casts doubts on programs like ImPACT (developed by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center team of Dr. Joseph Maroon, consultant for the National Football League and World Wrestling Entertainment).
Today Fox News picked up the story of the new American Journal of Sports Medicine Article finding that an athlete undergoing a computerized neuropsychological evaluation, which is designed to measure the effects of a traumatic brain injury, could get low marks because he was depressed about a sprained ankle. See “Study: Non-Head Injuries May Impact Thinking Skills,” http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/07/29/study-non-head-injuries-may-impact-thinking-skills/.
Meanwhile, The New York Times remains silent on the controversy over the reliance on neurocognitive testing. Indeed, of late The Times has been strangely light on concussion issue coverage in general, even as the NFL lockout has ended and pro football training camps have opened.
Dr. Bennet Omalu discovered chronic traumatic encephalopathy in football players. The last time a print edition of The Times mentioned Omalu was more than a year ago: June 29, 2010.
Irv Muchnick