Dr. Daniel Garza, a leading researcher in concussion and brain-related injuries at Stanford University and the medical director and team physician of the 49ers, has died. The university said in a news release Wednesday night that Garza died at his Bay Area home on Tuesday night. The cause of death was not immediately available. Garza, 43, lived in Redwood City, the San Mateo County coroner's office said. "The 49ers organization has been informed of a tragedy," the team said in a statement. "We were saddened to learn Dr. Dan Garza died unexpectedly Tuesday. Our sincerest thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends during this trying time." Garza was an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery and emergency medicine at the Stanford School of Medicine. His primary research focused on the prevention of traumatic brain injury in athletes. Garza conducted extensive studies on the risk of concussions by fitting athletes, including Stanford football players, with mouthpieces that measure the impact and frequency of collisions. "Dan Garza was very dedicated to sports medicine, to teaching human physiology and to his research to improve recovery and treatment outcomes for athletes," said Dr. William Maloney, a professor and chair of Stanford's department of … Continue reading →

Research in traumatic brain injury (TBI) is challenging for several reasons; in particular, the heterogeneity between patients regarding causes, pathophysiology, treatment, and outcome. Advances in basic science have failed to translate into successful clinical treatments, and the evidence underpinning guideline recommendations is weak. Because clinical research has been hampered by non-standardised data collection, restricted multidisciplinary collaboration, and the lack of sensitivity of classification and efficacy analyses, multidisciplinary collaborations are now being fostered. Approaches to deal with heterogeneity have been developed by the IMPACT study group. These approaches can increase statistical power in clinical trials by up to 50% and are also relevant to other heterogeneous neurological diseases, such as stroke and subarachnoid haemorrhage. Rather than trying to limit heterogeneity, we might also be able to exploit it by analysing differences in treatment and outcome between countries and centres in comparative effectiveness research. This approach has great potential to advance care in patients with TBI. Originally posted here: Advancing care for traumatic brain injury: findings from the IMPACT studies and perspectives on future research … Continue reading →

Over a million Europeans who suffer traumatic brain injuries each year could benefit from a new study from scientists in Cambridge and Antwerp. TBI comes with a huge personal and social cost, resulting in more deaths in young adults than any other cause, and for those who survive, the lifelong consequences can often be devastating. It is a growing problem in low-and middle-income countries - in India one person dies every 10 minutes due to TBI, and this will treble by 2020. Detailed data from over 5000 patients recruited from across Europe, including from Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge, will be analysed during the project. This will provide a unique overview of the scale of the problem of TBI in Europe, examine differences in treatment and pinpoint best practices in how TBI is identified and treated. New diagnostic approaches will be used, including advanced techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and genetic analysis, to better understand the disease. Addenbrookes will be utilising its state-of-art research MRI scanners, sited next to the Neurosciences Critical Care Unit, to facilitate safe imaging of patients at early stages after TBI. More than 60 hospitals and 38 scientific institutes, including six from outside Europe, will … Continue reading →