Lessons From Bird Brains

摘要

The doctors who discovered that football can cause brain damage are the heroes of Concussion, which opens in theaters on Dec. 25. Now one of them may be on the verVe of another breakthrough. Dr. Julian Bailes, played by Alec Baldwin in the film, is part of a team that's created what might be the first device to cut down on concussions. Spoiler alert: It's not another high-tech helmet. Helmets are good at pre-venting skull fractures, but they can't prevent concussipns. That's because the brain floats in fluid inside the skull, like an egg yolk inside a shell. No matter how well the outside is padded, the brain is still damaged when it sloshes against the sides of the skull during a collision. Bailes's innovation is a collar that lightly constricts the jugular vein, which has the effect of reducing the jiggle room inside the cranium. In October, Performance Sports Group, the maker of Bauer ice hockey equipment and Cascade lacrosse helmets, licensed the technology; it plans to start selling the bands within a year or two, subject to approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. "The market is giant," says Kevin Davis, chief executive officer of the Exeter, N.H., company. "It's a huge unmet clinical need."