Dr. Michael McCrea has been on the front lines of research into what happens to the brain when a soldier in combat or an athlete on a sports field suffers a concussion or traumatic head injury.
McCrea is director of the ProHealth Care Neuroscience Center and Research Institute, where his team at Waukesha Memorial Hospital established itself internationally a few years ago with its research into sports-related concussions. The team used its research to develop a 10-minute clinical examination that paramedics, emergency medical technicians and doctors can use to determine if an athlete who takes a blow to the head has suffered a concussion.
In 2006, the U.S. Department of Defense contacted McCrea and his team to see if the lessons learned on the sports field could be applied to the battle fields in assessing whether soldiers had suffered traumatic brain injury while in combat. After consulting with Dr. McCrea, the concussion assessment tool was repackaged for use by American troops in the Middle East, where concussion and brain trauma have emerged as signature injuries.
McCrea also has participated in the development of the national Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, a collaboration of the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs and civilian partners to serve active duty military and veterans with traumatic brain injuries.
More recently, McCrea and his team, in cooperation with New York University School of Medicine, studied concussions in hundreds of high school and college athletes and determined that the effects of such injuries can linger long after symptoms disappear.
McCrea has taken his findings on the road to educate parents, coaches, athletes and the governing boards within sports on the short- and long-term effects of head trauma. Thanks in part to his efforts, high school, college and even professional sports are treating concussions and head trauma injuries more seriously than in the past.
“This has translated into athletes being more willing to report injuries, parents being more cautious about a return to activity and coaches leaving it to medical personnel to make those complex decisions,” McCrea says.
