Which Head Impacts Lead to CTE?

In this episode we discuss findings about the kinds of head impacts that lead to neurodegenerative brain disease.

Episode Guests

Daniel Daneshvar, MD, PhD

Dr. Daneshvar conducts research on the long-term effects of moderate-severe traumatic brain injury, concussion, and repetitive head impacts, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Dr. Daneshvar's work has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Annals of Neurology, and Brain, and has been featured broadly including in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, and ESPN. He also founded Team Up Against Concussions, the first scientifically validated concussion education program for kids. He is the Director of the Institute for Brain Research and Innovation at TeachAids, which created CrashCourse: a free, scientifically validated virtual reality and computer-based concussion education program. He received his S.B. from MIT and completed his M.D./Ph.D. at the BU CTE Center. His research resulted in the first dissertation in history to study CTE. He completed residency at Stanford University before joining the faculty at Harvard Medical School.

Lisa McHale

Lisa McHale graduated from Cornell University, where she met her husband, Tom McHale, an All-American Defensive End for the Big Red. They married in 1990 and moved to Tampa, where Tom began his 9-year NFL career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (and later the Philadelphia Eagles and Miami Dolphins) and Lisa received a Master’s and Educational Specialist (ED.S) degree in School Psychology from the University of South Florida. Their eldest son T.J. was born in May 1994. He was joined by brothers Michael in January 1998 and Matthew in December 1999. Lisa first became aware of CTE in 2008 when her husband of eighteen years passed away in May and became the second former NFL player diagnosed with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) by researchers at the CTE Center at Boston University School of Medicine. In early 2010, Lisa joined the team at the Concussion Legacy Foundation (CLF), first serving as the Volunteer and Family Coordinator. She currently serves as the Director of Legacy Family Relations for both CLF and the BU CTE Center, working remotely from her home in Tampa, Florida.

Episode Resources

Episode Articles & Related Research

• Leveraging football accelerometer data to quantify associations between repetitive head impacts and chronic traumatic encephalopathy in males | Nature Communications
• UNITE Brain Bank | CTE Center

Advocacy, Education, & Community Organizations

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