Health Wonk Review: Super Bowl Edition

January 29th, 2015 by Julie Ferguson

Jason Shafrin, our favorite Healthcare Economist, is hosting Health Wonk Review: Super Bowl Edition, the best of the recent postings from blogging health policy wonks. Jason cuts right to the chase in a compact, digest version of posts that will keep you up to date on issues related to healthcare costs, policies, IT developments and safety. Oh, and kindness – which should be a de facto component of healthcare, no?

Speaking of football … we hate to be the Debbie Downer of the sport’s big weekend, but a new study on concussions was just released to coincide with the Super Bowl – it sheds more light on the seriousness of concussions In youth football, demonstrating that NFL players who began playing before age 12 are more susceptible to cognitive difficulties. “The difficulty faced by the former players, who reported an average of nearly 400 concussions each during their lifetimes, is separate from the problem of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which can only be diagnosed after death.”

Is the focus on concussions having an impact on football? Justin Rodriguez of the Times Herald-Record reports on how the concussion crisis is a big blow to football.

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