How does scientific illiteracy, particularly in government, affect these issues?

"Over the last 28 years, more than 70 student athletes have been hit in the chest and died. We're talking about 3 kids a year. That's 3 too many."

That's why I laid those studies out in layman's terms in my book. People have taken it to their school boards, to their athletic organizations, to their local governments. Hey, 20 to 30% of these injuries we're not going to be able to prevent. So, if you use the health care system, this is how to make it more affordable for every American. This information is pertinent for anyone who's going to use our health care system at any time.

The first part of the book is an information manual to parents and coaches and community activists. It gives them the information necessary to make their family safer and healthier, and therefore their communities safer and healthier.

The second part of the book is an exposé on what's really happening in sports, from the youth level to the senior level. There's this huge epidemic of injury in our country that has taken an enormous toll on people and also on our economy. The folks that get injured are either the backbone of our labor force or our future labor force and many of these injuries have significant long term ramifications.

The third part of the book is the policy side, a political side. We talk about what we can do to make the insurance companies, the HMOs, the government more accountable to people and to create a more affordable and more available health care delivery system. One that focuses on prevention of need, rather than manipulation of need, like these insurance companies and HMOs like to do by rationing care.

Show me one mom or one dad who knows about our studies, and I will show you a safer community within one month. No matter what the insurance and sporting goods companies try to throw down their throat, they go for the facts. If we individuals can band together a little bit, we can knock out the big multi-million dollar insurance companies and sporting goods companies that are doing the wrong thing.

What research is the Institute currently doing?

We're working on a couple of things. We have a study in the January, 2002 issue of the International Journal of Injury Control where we show that repetitive heading in soccer can lead to information processing and memory deficits. So, we're looking at different type of helmet structures to attenuate these impacts. We have shown that using a lightweight ball, like a beach ball, will reduce the risk of head impact injuries to a significant degree. The vast majority of these heading injuries are occurring in practice, where the coach is bouncing the ball off the child's head 15 times and then going to the next child.

We're also looking at different helmet structures for a number of sports. We're also looking at shoe structures. Everybody looks at turf surfaces—artificial turf versus natural turf. We are looking at cleat structure to try to reduce the risk of injury to the knee and to the ankle. We're also doing more research on chest protectors.

What's the message you wish to give people?

The underlying theme in the book is dream big and dare to fail. Those words are not mine, they're from Norman Vaughn, the chief dog musher for Admiral Byrd. When Byrd conquered Antarctica, he named the largest peak in Antarctica after Vaughn because he felt without Vaughn, he never could have accomplished his goals. At 89, Norman Vaughn went back to climb that peak in Antarctica, and when he did, his family sent two folks with him to carry his dead body home. Well, at the top of the mountain, these two guides asked him, "How in the world do you do this?" Vaughn said, "Life is all about attitude, and if you dream big and dare to fail, you can accomplish anything in life."

And we've tried to dream big and dared to fail at the Institute, and I think we have made an enormous difference in people's lives. When we deal with prevention, we actually create a healthier country, one that can be more productive and lead the free world in not only economic issues, but any issue we get involved with. That's the message I try to deliver. When your heart and your gut tells you to do something worthwhile, and you meet folks who try to block your efforts, find a way around them.
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