Symposium focuses on
concussion awareness and featured Steelers coach Mike Tomlin and ESPN NFL analyst Merril Hoge as its guest speakers.
Earnhardt, six members of UPMC’s concussion treatment team and Steelers head athletic trainer John Norwig stood more than three hours behind the microphone with one recurring message: There isn’t a one size-fits-all treatment for concussions.
“There’s a lot of misinformation out there regarding concussions,” said Dr. Michael “Micky” Collins, executive director of the UPMC Sports Medicine concussion program.
Collins and his colleagues repeatedly described and referred to six categories of concussions, which each require different types of treatment. The ability to match the type of concussion to its corresponding treatment is a “crucial process” and one that has become better understood by doctors in the last decade, Collins said.
“If there are 30 different types of knee injuries, why would there only be one type of head injury?” he rhetorically asked. “We’re getting better at identifying specific types of concussions and matching those with rehab guidelines.”
Deer Lakes youth football president James Aller said he chose to attend the event “to learn the most upto-date information about concussions.”
“There’s so much different information out there these days,” he said, “that it’s important for someone to be educated with the truth. Being able to hear from the experts will allow us to make sure the right thing happens for our players.”