I am very excited to inform you and implore you to attend this first of its kind conference. Katherine Snedaker – a good friend and ally – along with her planning committee have done a wonderful job of creating a great place to discuss a subset of this head injury issue.

The International Summit on Female Concussions and TBI will be held a month from now at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. This summit is unique because this will only be about sex and gender-based research on females, from pediatrics to the elderly.

As much as we think we know about head injuries and concussions we don’t know squat, globally. Let alone in one gender over the other; females have been painfully overlooked/lack of attention because most of the noise and spotlight is on male dominated sports. Although, females choose to play many of the collision sports (rugby, hockey, lacrosse) there are other issues we know that impact females differently.

The summit is over two days and will eventually culminate in a consensus statement about female issues surrounding and within the concussion paradigm. This is also going to be a first of its kind, and appreciated at least from me.

The Topics (briefly summarized):

Menstrual Phase and its impact

Age and Sex and its impact on symptoms

Domestic Violence

Female Soldiers

Pediatrics

Female Sport Concussions

Concussion Recovery male vs. female

Female RIO Data

Clinical Spectroscopy of Female brain

Return to School

Social Interactions

Ice Skaters

Psychology of Concussoin

And more

Here are the presenters, moderators and planning committee members (as of this post):

Dr. Kristy Arbogast (CHOP)

Ms. Christine Baugh (Harvard University) Moderator

Dr. Shannon Bauman (Concussion North)

Dr. Jeff Bazarian (Rochester)

Dr. Donna Broshek (U of Virginia) Moderator

Dr. Angela Colantonio (University of Toronto)

Dr. Tracy Covassin (Mich State)

Dr. Thomas Dompier (Datalys Center)

Dr. Ruben Echemendia (State College) Moderator

Dr. Carolyn Emery (Calgary) Cannot attend but co-editor of summit paper

Ms. Maria E. Garay (Sojourner Center)

Dr. Gerry Gioia (Children’s National)

Dr. Chris Giza (UCLA)

Dr. Odette Harris (DVBIC)

Dr. Robb Knechtel (Sojourner Center)

Dr. Margot Putukian (Princeton)

Dr. Brian Hainline (NCAA Chief Medical Officer)

Mr. Tim Kelly (Head Athletic Trainer/Associate Athletic Director, United States Military Academy)

Dr. Harry Kerasidis (Calvert Memorial Hospital)

Dr. Zach Kerr (Datalys Center)

Dr. Alexander Lin (Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical)

Dr. Rosemarie Scolaro Moser (Sports Concussion Center of New Jersey)

Mr. Chris Nowinski (Concussion Legacy Foundation)

Dr. Catherine McGill (Children’s National) Moderator

Dr. Summer Ott (UT Medical School at Houston) Moderator

Dr. Elizabeth Pieroth (NorthShore University HealthSystem) Moderator

Dr. Mayumi Prins (UCLA)

Dr. Jessica Schwartz (National Spokeswoman American Physical Therapy Association) Moderator

Dr. Tad Seifert (Norton Healthcare, U of K College of Medicine)

Dr. Tom Trojian (Drexel) Sport Concussion Research

Dr. David Wang (Quinnipiac)

That is quite the list and an impressive group of people who are worth at least a listen to.

In addition to the wonderful topics of research and information there will be tw0 panels with general discussion about female issues:

Media Panel Mr. Stanley Kay (Sports Illustrated) Mr. Timothy Bella (Al Jazeera America) Mr. Tom Macleod (Sky Sports) Mr. TJ Quinn (ESPN) Ms. Bonnie Ford (ESPN) Mr. Stefan Fatsis (SLATE) Mr. Patrick Hruby (VICE Sports)

Female Athlete Panel (not all are confirmed at this point): Ms. Samantha Rapoport (Former female tackle football player since age 12, now USA Football Director of Development) Ms. Melissa Coyne (Former Lacrosse goalie with 3 concussions in a helmet, now US Lacrosse Director of Games Administration) Ms Josephine Pucci (Harvard Crimson Women’s Ice Hockey Team, United States Women’s National Ice Hockey Team) Ms. Paige Decker (Yale Women’s Ice Hockey Team) Ms. Emilie Bydwell (Professional Rugby player and All-American) Ms. Cara Griffin (High School Athlete) Equestrian or Soccer Player TBA Moderator: Dr. Catherine McGill (Children’s National)

(not all are confirmed at this point):

You can REGISTER HERE and find out more info about lodging and prices.

I am looking forward to the information coming from this very important meeting and I think you all should take the time to get to this event and broaden your info about concussions. I am squarely looking at athletic trainers and doctors that deal with the female athlete.

And perhaps you will get a chance to meet me there and either yell at me or shake my hand (pending finding a babysitter).