URI_Research_Magazine_Momentum_Spring_2018_Melissa-McCarthy

One method of assessing processing functions of the brain following a sport concussion.

Cassie Catlow Graduate student, Physical Therapy

Despite the inconsistent concussion awareness, Konin says he is confident that his research and the future research by his colleagues will prompt parents, players, coaches and health care providers to demand more effective concussion education. Konin trusts that sports-medicine experts will work together with parents, coaches, and players to create better education programs and spread more awareness to make sports safer for all. “There is an inherent risk with everything you do, whether you choose to play football today, there is an inherent risk associated with getting a head injury or an ankle injury,” Konin says. “It is our job as sports medicine experts to educate you on those inherent risks, and you are supposed to make a decision based on that information.”

“We think in the future the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education should consider adding new guidelines on required content and clinical experience related to concussion,” Caslow says. Increased clinical concussion education standards would require physical therapy students to gain more clinical experience assessing and treating concussions, ultimately increasing the clinician’s level of competence and leading to a greater protection of the athlete’s health. “Ultimately what I take away is that there is so much more learning that parents, athletes, and even us as physical therapists can do,” Catlow says.

Spring | 2018 Page 53