“They deny the truth and humanity of science in order to protect their revenue streams.”
Sheilla Dingus
February 9, 2017
On Wednesday as Judge Anita Brody held a conference detailing registration and award information regarding the well publicized NFL concussion settlement, renowned neuropathologist and researcher Dr. Bennet Omalu, submitted a sixteen-page letter defending the integrity of his research in a similar, but somewhat lesser known suit against the NHL.
Dr. Omalu is best known for his research on CTE, regarding Mike Webster, the first NFL player to be posthumously diagnosed with the disease. Omalu’s findings were first published in the medical journal, Neurosurgery in 2005. The resistance he faced from the NFL as his research increased and passed the scrutiny of peer review is chronicled in the movie, “Concussion.”
Like the NFL, the NHL has faced increasing lawsuits claiming that the hockey league enables a culture of violence that knowingly puts players at risk from brain trauma in order to maximize profits at players’ expense. In August 2014 these lawsuits were combined into a multidistrict litigation (MDL) in Minnesota District Court. The NHL, through Commissioner Gary Bettman has consistently and repetitively denied a link between concussions and sub-concussive brain injury and CTE. In contrast to public statements, the NHL has taken a tough stance this season on pulling players from the ice when they are suspected of having a concussion through their new concussion spotter policy. Apparently this has been implemented to minimize legal liability since the league’s official line still maintains that the players aren’t in any danger.
In their latest attempt to squelch the lawsuit, the NHL has hired a medical “expert,” Dr. Rudolph J. Castellani to represent their interest. According to Castellani, the images of the brain tissue samples published in Omalu’s research do not show signs of the condition, and that the slides detailing Mike Webster’s brain did “not remotely qualify for any neurodegenerative process and was well within the range of normal for a 50-year-old man. As such, there was no evidence whatsoever that the decedent described in this paper had a progressive neurodegenerative condition, and I disagree that the material provided by Omalu et al. in that paper permits the diagnosis of any neurodegenerative disease, including so-called ‘CTE.’” Castellani also found fault with research conducted by Boston University CTE Center, one of the nation’s largest and most prominent leaders in brain trauma research.
Based on Castellani’s statements, the NHL has filed a motion to compel Boston University CTE Center to release an enormous volume of documents and materials related to its research. Castellani claims that publicly available materials are insufficient. “If I had access to copies of gross pathology photographs, all brain slides, and clinical data, I could verify the accuracy of the reports, evaluate for other pathological processes that may be significant, and conduct a full, independent neuropathological analysis of the cases reported by researchers at the BU CTE Center,” Castellani claimed.
The NHL issued subpoenas to Drs. Ann McKee and Robert Stern, BU’s leading CTE researchers however, the doctors refuse to comply unless they receive signed medical releases, citing ethics and privacy responsibilities. Dr. McKee also expressed grave concern for the sheer amount of work it would take to comply with the NHL’s discovery demand. “The NHL subpoena’s invasive demand for all CTE-related pre-publication discussions, including with peer reviewers retained by journals, threatens the foundation on which science thrives,” Dr. McKee wrote, according to TSN.
“Dr. McKee also criticized the NHL’s offer to pay for a third party to comb through Boston University’s records and remove any patient identifying information before using the records in the litigation.
Dr. McKee said the school’s brain bank contains about 172,000 photographs from 400 donor brains (donors have included military veterans and former professional and amateur athletes). To eliminate the identifying autopsy number included on every photograph – assuming six photographs were processed each hour – could take one employee as long as 13 years, she wrote.”
“In practical terms it would shut down my research,” she said.
“The Boston University issue is between BU and NHL.” Plaintiffs’ counsel Charles Zimmerman said to Law360, “but clearly our view is the motion by the NHL is a vast overreach and an attempt to inhibit and chill valid and important research on the important topic of what happens to the brain during contact sports, at one of the foremost centers for the study of brain disease in the world.”
Concerned in regard to what is taking place, Dr. Omalu wrote a letter to Plaintiffs’ counsel which has now been submitted to the Court. In the letter, Dr. Omalu begins by stating his background and qualifications, and then describes how his work over the last several years has passed the most stringent levels of peer review.
Dr. Omalu, who is no stranger to league opposition detailed how science from the 1700’s forward began to recognize the “emerging evidence that high-contact sports like boxing can cause brain damage in human beings.” In his letter he summarized the school of scientific thought and research from this time going forward.
“In spite of this long history of very well-established science and common knowledge, sports organizations and leagues that govern high-impact, high-contact sports in the United States like boxing, American football and ice hockey have historically misappropriated, denied, undermined and dismissed this science in order to protect and expand their brand equity, financial health and market share. In other words, they deny the truth and humanity of science in order to protect their revenue streams. Based on historical precedence. . . sports organizations may actually go even farther to influence science and steer the direction of outcomes of scientific research to their benefit. They identify some doctors with certain unique characteristics, supply them with status and lots of money and have them propose scientific concepts, do bogus research, turn out scientific papers that will perpetuate their sports, brands and revenues.”