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February 12, 2014

The Honorable Sheila Hixon, ChairHouse Ways &Means Committee131 House Office BuildingAnnapolis, MD 21401

Greg Penczek, PresidentNick Pitruzzella, Vice President

Amy Magladry, SecretaryMaureen Thompson, Treasurer

RE: HB 426: Education Concussion Impact Sensor Pilot Program (LETTER OF CONCERN)

Dear Chairwoman Hixon and Members of the Committee,

On behalf of the Maryland Athletic Trainers Association (MAYA) representing the nearly 500 licensed athletic trainers inMaryland; we commend Delegate Cardin for his effort and dedication to bring the issue of concussions to high schoolathletics to the forefront through HB 426, however, we respectfully ask that this bill be withdrawn as unnecessary for severalreasons.

The bill has a laudable ultimate aim, with which the stakeholders agree: more research and data is needed on the rates ofconcussions in high school athletics, not only in men's football but also in non-helmeted sports as well as women's sportssuch as lacrosse and soccer. However, we believe that to mandate that the State Department of Education implement helmetsensors/accelerometers in one high school football team in each county present numerous concerns and puts the equipmentahead of the science.

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Requiring MDSE to coordinate with DHMH, MPSSAA, Maryland Athletic Trainers Association and the Brain InjuryAssociation of Maryland without allied healthcare professionals together who have significant experience withevaluating, diagnosing, and treating these injuries is placing the Education Department at odds with the medicalcommunity. We suggest that the MPSSAA develop internal protocols for incentivizing schools to voluntarily adopthelmet sensors/accelerometers without legislative mandates by stakeholders who cannot influence state agencyoutcomes.

Requiring the program to be placed on hold unless equipment is donated poses RFP concerns as well as monopolyconcerns geared towards one manufacturer of helmet sensors/accelerometers over others.

Limiting the program only to high school football is discriminatory toward women's high school sports and wouldlack broad research data outcomes.

Approximately 42% of high schools in the U.S. have athletic trainers on staff. Currently, eight counties in Marylandhave either one full time licensed athletic trainer or one part time licensed athletic trainer available for all schoolathletic teams (we applaud their efforts and encourage a1123 counties and Baltimore City to do the same). Should thislegislation be enacted, it would not provide a means to ensure that the appropriate qualified and licensed alliedhealthcare professional will be in place at the those schools that are included in the pilot program thus notguaranteeing that there will be qualified personnel on-hand for data collection and clinical evaluation andmanagement of those injuries.

Implementing helmet sensors/accelerometers could render false positives or worse, false negatives while not takinginto account the individual baseline impact of a concussion for each student athlete. The teenage brain and neck arevastly different in development from a college athlete or professional athlete, the science and research still in process.

Maryland Athletic Trainers AssociationAttn: Greg Penczek

800 York Road -Field House 101Towson, MD 21252

president@marylandathletictrainers.org