Robinson part of panel focusing on concussion prevention and treatment

May 30, 2017

Dr. Jimmy Robinson, who holds the Endowed Chair of Sports Medicine for Family Physicians at the College of Community Health Sciences, was part of a panel discussion last month that focused on concussion prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management. Robinson, who is also the lead team physician for UA Athletics, was joined on the University of Alabama at Birmingham panel by Dr. M. Heath Hale, lead team physician for UAB Athletics, and Dr. Siraj Abdullah, sports medicine physician for Auburn University. “The more we learn about concussions, the more we realize what we don’t know about concussions,” Robinson said. The panel discussion is part of ongoing efforts among researchers and medical professionals at UAB looking for answers in how to best protect the brain and treat traumatic brain injuries. “The research that continues to come out of UAB enhances the care we are able to provide our athletes,” Hale said. “New helmet research to protect our football players’ brains, baseline testing for all student-athletes in the case that they receive a concussion, and even research on the appropriate time for our student-athletes to return to the classroom play an important role in how we care for concussed student-athletes each day.” Robinson was instrumental in helping pass legislation in Alabama in 2011 to protect younger athletes from concussions as a founding member of a task force created by the Neuropsychology Department at Children’s Hospital in Birmingham. The law requires athletes and their parents and coaches to be educated about the signs and symptoms of concussions. The law also requires athletes who show signs or symptoms of a concussion to get physician approval before returning to their sport. Robinson, who has served as lead team physician for UA Athletics since 1989, is also the team physician for many Tuscaloosa area high schools. He is director of the College’s Dr. Bill deShazo Sports Medicine Center and oversees the College’s Sports Medicine Fellowship for Family Physicians.