Harvard University’s Football Players Health Study has just developed an app that will significantly add to the sheer amount of data that exists on the health of retired NFL players. The app, titled TeamStudy, is targeted towards both former NFL athletes and the general public, as the non-NFL participant will act as a control.
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Taking part in TeamStudy takes about 20 minutes a week, and the information gathered will be placed towards helping former and current NFL players discover more about possible football-related ailments pertaining to memory, balance, heart health, general body pain and mobility.
TeamStudy uses Apple’s ResearchKit framework, which is an open-source code that helps medical research teams create studies via iOS. It is different from the traditional manner of medical studies, in that it does not require the participant to be physically present. This way, research teams like the one at Harvard can gather a massive amount of data from people all over the world, especially in a situation as dire as this one.
Two former NFL linebackers have already jumped on board this project—former Dallas Cowboy Dat Nguyen and former New York Giant Mark Herzlich. Herzlich has an immediate interest in this app, since he is a member of the NFLPA’s Executive Committee and the NFLPA is backing Harvard’s release of this study.
“This app will allow the Harvard team to take its work to another level—reaching perhaps thousands more former players and extending even further to fans, friends, spouses and other communities,” Herzlich said.
The NFL does this at a smart time, given that last week marked the first time that a senior NFL official actively admitted that there is a link between playing professional football and degenerative brain diseases. Jeff Miller, the NFL’s senior vice president for health and safety, cited research by Dr. Ann McKee that affirmed football-related head trauma can lead to diseases like CTE.
The NFL will hope that this app, along with a number of other initiatives they have begun, will help put an end to the concussion issue that has been plaguing the league for years now. However, this is still a first step in the grand scheme of solving the serious problem.