| In the fall
of 2001, U.S. Representatives Edward Markey (D-MA) and Bill Pascrell, Jr.
(D-NJ), along with 12 additional Members of Congress requested that the
Brain Injury Association of America review the most current information
on the safety of amusement park rides, mainly roller coasters, based on
concerns expressed by constituents. A panel was assembled consisting of
scientists in the fields of biomechanical engineering, epidemiology, clinical
medicine, basic neuroscience, and neurotraumatology as well as a representative
of the amusement park industry who had extensive experience in the design
and operation of roller coasters. Beginning in July 2002, a series of biweekly
telephone conferences were held to evaluate and review the existing scientific
and industry data in this area and to critically analyze the scientific
merit. This activity culminated in a meeting convened over a three-day period
in Alexandria, Virginia in November 2002 to finalize the conclusions and
develop a series of recommendations based upon a dispassionate, objective
review of all relevant materials. |
Gregory O'Shanick has been the Medical Director
of the Center for Neurorehabilitation Services in Midlothian, Virginia since
1991. After attending Ohio State University, he entered the University of
Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and graduated in 1977. His post-graduate
studies were at Duke University Medical Center. His academic career includes
faculty appointments at University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston,
Medical College of Virginia and most recently, in the Department of Neurological
Surgery at the University of Virginia. He has authored more than 100 publications,
including editing or co-editing three textbooks. As a result of his international
reputation in neuropsychiatry and neurorehabilitation, he was asked to be
the first National Medical Director of BIAA in 1996, a post he still holds.
Dr. O'Shanick is a member of the American Neuropsychiatric Association,
the American Academy of Neurology, the American Society of Neurorehabilitation
and a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He has previously
chaired a panel developing evidence-based guidelines for the evaluation
of mild traumatic brain injury.
Michael Freeman serves as a clinical
assistant professor at Oregon Health Sciences University School of Medicine
Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine as a trauma epidemiologist,
where he teaches a course in injury and trauma epidemiology (with a focus
on motor vehicle crash injuries), as well as conducts research on crash-related
injuries and other trauma. He holds a Ph.D. in trauma epidemiology along
with a Masters of Public Health degree in biostatistics and epidemiology
from Oregon State University. Dr. Freeman’s doctoral thesis was on
chronic spine pain following motor vehicle crash injuries.
Dr. Freeman is the co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Whiplash and Related
Disorders from Haworth Medical Press, the only peer-reviewed journal devoted
to whiplash injuries. He has researched and published information in the
field of injuries associated with roller coaster rides and other amusement
park-related injuries.
He serves as a Deputy Medical Examiner,
Marion County, and a Consultant Trauma Epidemiologist to the Medical Examiner
Division, Oregon State Police, analyzing fatal collisions and the resulting
injuries. His CV can be accessed on the web at http://www.ohsu.edu/som-PubHealth/Freeman.html.
David Allen Hovda
is the Director of the UCLA Brain Injury Research Center. He is a former
President of the National Neurotrauma Society and has received a number
of awards for his research on brain injury and recovery of function, including
the 1991 National Head Injury Foundation Award, the Giannini Foundation
Award, the Benjamin Franklin Haught Memorial Award and named the Lind
Lawrence Eminent Scholar on Traumatic Brain Injury.
Dr. Hovda is most well known internationally for his work describing the
remote metabolic changes that occur following traumatic brain injury as
well as his efforts to influence the brain to recover following disruption.
He currently sits on several editorial boards including the journals Restorative
Neurology and Neuroscience, The Journal of Neurotrauma, and Developmental
Brain Dysfunction. Dr. Hovda currently chairs a study section committee
for the National Institute for Neurological Disease and Stroke. He is
often recruited to lecture at other universities and consults for several
different national programs addressing issues related to developing therapeutic
treatments for brain injury.
T. Harold Hudson
is the President of AAPRA Associates (All About Parks, Rides and Attractions),
a private consulting company that works with a multitude of companies
and experts in the amusement industry. His consulting covers all areas
of theme park operation and development. He also is the retired Sr. Vice
President of Engineering for Six Flags Theme Parks, Inc. where he oversaw
the development of numerous amusement rides and roller coasters.
Hudson has experience with the development of theme parks including, site
research, feasibility studies, park design, ride design, construction
and project management. He graduated from Mississippi State University
with a degree in engineering and attended John Carroll University's M.B.A.
program.
Y. King Liu
is the founder and current President and Chairman of the Board of the
University of Northern California in Petaluma, California. He has sponsored
research for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), PHS, the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Science Foundation,
U.S. Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory, U.S. Aerospace Medical Research
Laboratory and many other organizations and private foundations of national
significance. As an expert on head and neck injuries, he has written numerous
publications on the topic in archival journals, book chapters and invited
conference proceedings.
Dr. Liu earned his Ph.D. in Mechanics from Wayne State University. He
received the NIH Research Career Development Award and was an Advisor-at-Large
of the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences.
He was visiting professor at the Karolinska Institute - Sweden, Oxford
University - U.K. and the University of California-San Francisco. Dr.
Liu also is a Licensed Acupuncturist in the State of California.
David Meaney is currently an Associate Professor of Bioengineering
at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on understanding
the mechanical cues that regulate injury, repair, and growth in cells
and tissues of the central nervous system. Clinical applications of his
work include developing new testing standards to improve the safety of
headgear and automotive restraint systems, and testing new techniques
for repairing damaged tissues in the brain and spinal cord after injury.
Dr. Meaney holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Bioengineering from the University
of Pennsylvania and B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute. His honors include the Williams J. Stickel Gold Award, a National
Science Foundation CARREER Award, the YC Fung Young Investigator Award
from the American Society of Bioengineering, and the John Paul Stapp Award
for the best paper presented at the 1999 Stapp Car Crash Conference.
Nils R. Varney
is the Chief of Psychology Service at the Veterans Medical Center in Iowa
City, Iowa. He has authored many papers and a highly regarded book on
traumatic brain injury, Evaluation and Treatment of Mild Traumatic Brain
Injury. His papers on head injury are cited frequently by others, including
those articles concerned with the use of kinematics in predicting outcome
in minor head injury and whiplash. He was a founding board member of the
Iowa chapter of the BIAA in 1984 and has been an active statewide, national
and international speaker on traumatic brain injury up to the present.
Dr. Varney received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 1977. He
is board certified in Clinical Neuropsychology by the American Board of
Professional Psychology and has been elected Fellow in the American Psychological
Association and the National Academy of Neuropsychology.
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