Winter Preliminary Concussion Data Announced
May 3, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The Michigan High School Athletic Association has found through collection of preliminary data that fewer than two percent of its more than 70,000 winter student-athletes experienced potential concussions during the season that concluded in March.
The MHSAA this school year requested for the first time that member schools report possible concussions by their student-athletes during both practice and competition. A first set of preliminary data announced in December showed only two percent of more than 100,000 high school fall athletes experienced concussions during that first season of the 2015-16 school year.
As it did for the fall, the MHSAA again received data from more than 99 percent of its member high schools at the end of the winter season. The average number of possible winter concussions reported by member high schools through May 2, 2016, was 1.6 concussions per school – half the average per school reported for the fall season. Just more than 39 percent of reporting schools stated they had no concussions by athletes this winter.
Girls and boys basketball, by far the most popular winter sports by participation, also revealed the highest percentage of winter concussions. Girls basketball, with 22 percent of all winter athletes, revealed 38 percent of possible concussions. Boys basketball, with 30 percent of winter athletes, followed with approximately 20 percent of reported possible concussions. Wrestling, with 13 percent of winter athletes, also registered approximately 20 percent of possible concussions.
In addition to breakdowns by sport, the breakdown by gender this winter also was significant. Total, girls make up approximately 38 percent of athletes who compete during the winter season – and girls experienced 48 percent of the possible concussions reported.
“This second set of preliminary data continues to tell a story behind concussions that we anticipated,” MHSAA Executive Director John E. “Jack” Roberts said. “Most importantly, these findings show that concussions are affecting our female athletes just as much as our male athletes. Concussion care is not a football-focused issue, but something we must work to improve for both genders and across all sports. Eventually we will want to encourage and support research that might inform as to why, beyond differences in physiology, more concussions are reported for girls than for boys.”
Data collected by the MHSAA remains preliminary, in part, because results noted include pending reports that have not been verified. After completion of these follow-up reports, the final number of concussions that actually occurred this past season and during the fall may be lower than the preliminary numbers being reported at this time.
The data analyzed to date is for high schools only, although middle schools also have the opportunity to report possible concussions. A full breakdown of the data including concussions by gender, sport, team level (varsity through junior high) and setting (practice or event) will be reported after the conclusion of this spring 2016 season.
The reporting of possible concussions is part of a three-pronged advance by the MHSAA in concussion care during the 2015-16 school year which is producing data related to the frequency and severity of head injuries. The MHSAA this fall launched the largest ever state high school association sideline concussion testing pilot program, with 62 schools taking part by using one of two screening tests designed to detect concussions. One of the objectives of the pilot is to increase awareness of concussions and improve sideline detection; and preliminary results indicate that the average number of possible concussions reported by pilot schools exceeds the average reported by schools outside the pilot group.
Of 30 schools reporting the most possible concussions this winter, seven are part of the MHSAA’s pilot sideline detection programs. Those programs – King-Devick Test and XLNTbrain Sport – utilize technology to provide on-site testing of athletes who have sustained possible concussions, with results of those examinations then compared against baseline tests taken by athletes previously.
The MHSAA also is the first state association to provide all participants at every member high school and junior high/middle school with insurance intended to pay accident medical expense benefits – covering deductibles and co-pays left unpaid by other policies – resulting from head injuries sustained during school practices or competitions and at no cost to either schools or families. The program will produce additional data about the frequency and severity of head injuries. After the fall and winter seasons, only 110 claims have been made on the insurance policy designed to assist in payment for concussion care. Twenty-nine of the claims are for basketball (girls and boys combined), seven are for wrestling and five for injuries experienced during ice hockey activities.
Schools report possible concussions online via the MHSAA Website. Reports are then examined by members of the MHSAA staff, who follow up with school administrators as those student-athletes continue to receive care and eventually return to play. Student privacy is protected.
Previously, the MHSAA also was among the first state associations to adopt a return-to-play protocol that keeps an athlete out of activity until at least the next day after a suspected concussion, and allows that athlete to return to play only after he or she has been cleared for activity by a doctor (M.D. or D.O.), physician’s assistant or nurse practitioner. The follow-up reports schools are providing the MHSAA reveal that the majority of students are being withheld from activity for a week or longer following the reported concussion. This will be discussed in more detail when the MHSAA releases a more comprehensive review that covers the entire school year.
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,400 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract more than 1.4 million spectators each year.
On Call as Doctor, Director, Mom
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
October 31, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Dr. Kiran Taylor is in her 10th year as a practicing psychiatrist and specializes in providing therapy to cancer patients and family members who care for them.
Taylor is the medical director of the Supportive Care Medicine Clinic at Spectrum Hospital’s Lemmen-Holton Cancer Pavilion in Grand Rapids. She's also the Chief of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine for the entire Spectrum Health System, which includes 11 hospitals and nearly 200 ambulatory and service sites all over the western Lower Peninsula.
And Thursday, she made sure to schedule a trip to her children’s school for the Halloween parade and costume parties.
Balancing is a daily requirement for Taylor (formerly Khanuja), an MHSAA Scholar-Athlete Award winner as an East Lansing senior in 1994. But the skills she learned as a tennis standout for the Trojans and at the University of Michigan are those she relies on still as a doctor, director and Mom.
“My high school athletic experience impacts all areas of my life,” Taylor said. “I think about the journey of those experiences and how those changed me.
“The discipline and time management skills you have to have as a scholar-athlete, to pay attention to school and pay attention to your sport, those are certainly skills I carry with me today.”
Taylor was one of 20 scholar-athletes recognized that winter by the MHSAA and 
Farm Bureau Insurance, which continues to sponsor the award program that has grown to 32 recipients. In advance of this March’s 25th celebration, Second Half is catching up with some of the hundreds who have been recognized.
Taylor advanced as far as the Lower Peninsula Class A No. 1 singles championship match during her high school tennis career, finishing runner-up at the top flight her junior season. She already had an interest at that point in health and an understanding of what went into playing at a high level, and was most interested in sports medicine and orthopedics when she began medical school, also at U-M.
But as she got a little deeper into her studies, Taylor discovered a path that seemed more in line with her personality.
‘Natural fit’
A video bio of Taylor on the Spectrum Health website includes her explaining that she chose psychiatry because it’s an area that allows her to empower patients to help themselves. In her line of work, she not only heals but aspires to help those in her care reach their potential.
“When they’re helping themselves, they’re helping others, they’re helping their communities,” Taylor said, “and the impact is endless.”
While at U-M, Taylor found a mentor in Dr. Michelle Riba, the director of the PsychOncology program at U-M’s Comprehensive Cancer Center. Her work, like Taylor’s at Spectrum, centers on treating patients in their dealing with the emotional issues that come with cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Taylor’s role as chief of psychiatry and behavioral medicine for the entire Spectrum system allows her to affect a patient’s entire care by making more accessible treatment for emotional and well as physical needs.
There are days she comes home after working with a patient facing especially somber circumstances, and through her medical training has learned how to keep those sad situations from affecting her personally.
But there also are days when she’s had to deal with a difficult managerial situation, and during those times she taps into the skills she learned while on the court.
"You manage adversity on a tennis court. It could be a tight match, or you're up 5-0 or down 5-0," Taylor said. "It's a microcosm of the world.
"If I have a challenging colleague or someone with a different opinion in a meeting, I tap into knowing how to deal with adversity."
Pass it on
Taylor, 37, remains tied to a few from her Scholar-Athlete Awards class. She has known Okemos winner Andy Dhaliwal since childhood and he is now a doctor too, having also graduated from U-M. Jackson winner Harland Holman is a family physician in Grand Rapids and also part of the Spectrum Health system, and knew Taylor's husband through wrestling.
Karin is married to Dr. Joe Taylor, quite a former scholar-athlete himself – he was a standout wrestler at Charlotte before graduating in 1995 and going on to study at U-M.
Thanks at least in part to their parents’ inclination toward sports, the Taylor kids are beginning to try some out. The oldest is 9, the same age as when Kiran first picked up a tennis racket.
For this, Taylor also is prepared thanks to her high school and college careers. Considered together, they give her a long perspective when it comes to kids and sports.
“(It’s about) letting them figure out what they’re interested in, letting them explore. They want to pay attention to things or don’t; watching them unfold was fun,” Taylor said. “It’s about understanding the road, and that’s what high school athletics did, and going on into college athletics. They helped me understand it’s a long road. You don’t have to start your kid at 4 and have the best at 7.”
And it's a road she advises this year's Scholar-Athletes to appreciate now as they pick up knowledge they'll use for a lifetime.
“The lessons they’re learning now, and how they conduct themselves – being a scholar-athlete, I think, is about the way you conduct yourself – those are the skills they will take with them no matter what they do at any point in life,” Taylor said. “That’s what being a scholar-athlete has done for me.”
Click to read the series' first installment:
25 Years Later, Scholar Athletes Shine On
PHOTO: (Top) Kiran Khanuja returns a volley during a tennis match while at East Lansing High School. (Bottom) The MHSAA Scholar-Athlete Award class of 1993-94 included Khanuja, seated fourth from left.
