HITSS is led by researchers at Boston University (BU) School of Medicine and BU School of Public Health. The principal investigator of HITSS is Dr. Robert Stern, who is Professor of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Anatomy & Neurobiology, as well as Director of Clinical Research at the BU CTE Center. The Project Director is Dr. Michael Alosco, who is an Associate Professor of Neurology and Co-Director of the Boston University Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Clinical Core. Other key BU faculty involved with HITSS are: Drs. Douglas Katz, Michael McClean, Ann McKee, Jesse Mez, Yorghos Tripodis, and Jennifer Weuve.

Because HITSS is overseen by BU faculty, study activities associated with HITSS are reviewed and approved by the BU Medical Campus Institutional Review Board (IRB). (See FAQ about Institutional Review Board.)

The Brain Health Registry (BHR), established in 2014 by researchers at The University of California, San Francisco, has the infrastructure needed to capture large amounts of data and to allow researchers to identify and monitor cognitive, behavior, and mood changes over a long period of time. This is exactly what HITSS needed to reach its goal in assessing the brain health risks associated with participating in contact and collision sports. The HITSS research project is, therefore, being conducted in conjunction with BHR.

All HITSS participants are asked to enroll in the full BHR experience in addition to HITSS. HITSS participants complete the same questionnaires and tests as BHR participants, but they also complete additional questionnaires and tests specific to HITSS. Those additional HITSS questionnaires and tests assess the participant’s detailed sports/athletic history, thinking and memory functioning, and mood and behavior.

The Brain Health Registry is a web-based, observational research study designed to effectively capture extensive amounts of data that may enable researchers to more efficiently identify, assess, and longitudinally monitor the cognitive changes associated with the progression of neurodegenerative diseases and brain aging.

Participants in the Brain Health Registry complete online questionnaires and tests that, over time, provides researchers with valuable information and allows them to better track changes in an individual’s health, lifestyle, and cognitive function. These changes could potentially be important indicators of a person’s brain health and could help to best identify and recruit ideal candidates for medical research and future clinical trials. This is the first large-scale neuroscience project that leverages online possibilities in this way.

By creating a large pool of pre-qualified potential participants, the Brain Health Registry can make clinical trials for neurological diagnostics and treatments faster, better, and more innovative – all of which may accelerate the discovery of effective treatments for brain disease and disorders, such as Alzheimer’s, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, Parkinson’s, depression, PTSD, and many more. To find out more, visit their website https://www.brainhealthregistry.org/

HITSS is being conducted in conjunction with the Brain Health Registry (BHR) which is led by top medical researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Because BHR is overseen by UCSF faculty, all study activities associated with the Brain Health Registry and HITSS are reviewed and approved by the UCSF Institutional Review Board (IRB).