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NESCAC convenes concussion-management seminar

NCAA.org

Members of the New England Small College Athletic Conference are convening Thursday at Williams College to discuss concussion management for student-athletes. The event is being sponsored by the NESCAC and Williams.

Administrators and medical staff representing each conference institution will meet this afternoon for a concussion management seminar that will feature a presentation from Robert Cantu from the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University. Cantu is a co-founder of the Sport Legacy Institute, which was established to advance the study, treatment, and prevention of the effect of brain trauma in athletes and other at-risk groups. 

Mark Peluso, team physician and director of the health center at Middlebury College, and Paul Berkner, the medical director at Colby College, will lead a discussion on known best practices and areas where more work is needed, such as pre-concussion education and early recognition, injury management, the treatment of injuries, and impacts on academic and athletic performance.

“NESCAC institutions already manage concussed student-athletes quite well,” said NESCAC Executive Director Andrea Savage. “Our institutions employ the most recent management guidelines with respect to pre-participation testing, symptom recognition, prohibiting same-day return to play, and a multi-step return-to-play process.

“This discussion is intended to ensure consistency of concussion management practices among our members and enable conference-wide updates as the science of concussion management evolves.”

For more on concussion management, see the health and safety section of NCAA.org.