While the love of football is undiminished in the United States, an increasing chorus of health professionals and others are expressing concern for the present and future health of the men who play the sport.
Whether it’s the research depicted in the 2015 movie “Concussion,” that calls for congressional hearings about concussions or litigation from former players, it seems clear that football takes an often-hefty toll on its participants.
In an effort to improve player safety, Harvard University announced the launch of TeamStudy, an iPhone ResearchKit app that will collect data from former National Football League (NFL) players, along with the general public, to study football’s impact. Harvard is partnering with Sage Bionetworks on the project.
The research is part of the Football Players Health Study conducted by Harvard since its creation in 2014. The app was designed with input from former players and will focus on memory, balance, heart health, pain and mobility.
How it Works
The public input will be used to create a diverse control group that includes men and women, along with athletes and nonathletes. That diversity will help in comparing data.
“Traditionally, we study participants in one location, failing to capture their real-life, day-to-day experience. For example, understanding things like pain and daily activity,” said Alvaro Pascual-Leone, the principal investigator of TeamStudy and a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School.
“Using ResearchKit, we will be able to quickly identify patterns that could lead to treatments for health conditions faced by former NFL players,” he said.
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Aaron Baggish, associate director of Massachusetts General Hospital’s Cardiovascular Performance Program and co-medical director of the Boston Marathon, said assessing cardiovascular health will be another key app function, according to a statement from the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA).
Former NFL players have expressed their support of the study.
When we leave the game, there is not enough information available for us to understand our state of health,” said Dat Nguyen, a Dallas Cowboys linebacker for seven years. “For years, we’ve asked ourselves these questions: ‘should my joints have this much pain? Is my memory normal? Should I be concerned about my heart health?’ TeamStudy will allow the Harvard researchers to answer these questions and share the facts with all of us.”
Other Research
Further medical research into the health and well-being of former NFL players is occurring.
In 2015, the NFL and General Electric teamed up to award $500,000 to Brainscope, a concussion assessment company. The company has built mobile non-invasive devices used in the assessment of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).
At a March 2016 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference, retired Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning noted that players are starting to monitor their steps in practice with trackers.
The TeamStudy app is available for free from the iTunes App Store.
