"Esteemed" concussion expert who has advised the AFL and constantly played down risks of CTE/brain injury accused of multi-counts of plagiarism

[HurleyHepsHird]

Crazy huh.

A guy who has posed as a foremost global expert in brain injury and the risks to sportspeople and has long gone against the grain of the popular consensus (that suggests much high risks) was hired by the AFL to help author their concussion policy.

Turns out, after being accused of misrepresenting other peoples research, he now faces multiple accusations of plagiarism.

Worse than that, people are having a hard time accounting where all his grant money has gone, given he has just recycled prior work for upto a decade. It even looks like the AFL are struggling to point to what research he did and whether it met ethical guidelines, to inform their current positions.

Has a real Big Tobacco vibe about it. And maybe it is time that former or current club doctors and "experts" hired by say the AFL, who has a major conflict of interest when it comes to shielding itself from liability, no longer be allowed to make these decisions on their own.

Perhaps the AFLPA or the Department of Health need to step in and take on the right to appoint an independent panel that can review the risks posed by concussion and make binding changes to how clubs and the AFL manage player health and welfare.

New plagiarism claims against sport concussion guru Paul McCrory

Exclusive: Expert who has downplayed link between concussion and traumatic brain injury is accused of 10 more cases of plagiarism

www.theguardian.com

 

[Cmarsh]

Happy Grand Final week AFL.

 

[HurleyHepsHird]

Happy Grand Final week AFL.

Ol Gil has really done a number on the comp.

 

[Rankine2Rachele]

How many more bombs will he drop before he leaves?

 

[Dinsdale]

Gil will launch an investigation, and let it run its course.

 

[maskmcgee]

Great, don't accept the risks, don't play. All current AFL players can quit, 800 ones who will sign away any liability to the AFL for concussion will play. It's a part of the game that's not going away. Either forget the litigation or the game dosen't exist.

 

[HairyO]

How many more bombs will he drop before he leaves?

The best legacy is when the next guy has everything crash under his watch.

Well played Gil.

 

[Kwality]

You'd have to be living in a cave to not know this issue is not limited to Aussie Rules footy. Here on BF its been discussed up hill & down dale.

The plagiarism:
'Nick Brown, a data analyst at Linnaeus University in Sweden, alleges he has found a further 10 examples of plagiarism by McCrory, including failing to attribute material taken from his own previously published work.
The AFL, the concussion doctor and the groundbreaking brain study that never appeared

“Dr McCrory has been churning out very similar stories for 20 years, while, as far as I have been able to establish, performing very little original empirical or other research in that time,” Brown said.

“If you’re saying exactly the same thing about this topic as you did a decade ago, what kind of research are you doing?”

New plagiarism claims against sport concussion guru Paul McCrory

Exclusive: Expert who has downplayed link between concussion and traumatic brain injury is accused of 10 more cases of plagiarism

www.theguardian.com

IF slagging Gil & the AFL administration is your go then dont read on, if CTE in sport is an issue see here: Chronic traumatic encephalopathy in Australia: the first three years of the Australian Sports Brain Bank

 

[Rankine2Rachele]

The best legacy is when the next guy has everything crash under his watch.

Well played Gil.

An absolute master stroke.

 

[HairyO]

An absolute master stroke.

"Wow this is a mess. Wasnt it so much better with Gil !?!"

 

[Sky]

Great, don't accept the risks, don't play. All current AFL players can quit, 800 ones who will sign away any liability to the AFL for concussion will play. It's a part of the game that's not going away. Either forget the litigation or the game dosen't exist.

If this game doesn’t exist there’s people out there like myself that’d follow suit. This league really helps with existential dread for half a year, every year.

 

[Osho]

Well, that's two pet peeves raising their heads, in Grand Final week of all weeks, indicating the control freak AFL is losing its grip on information and narrative.

First the facade of indiginous respect and progress has been demolished. The indigenous rounds, indigenous jerseys, and country recognitions before games are now to be seen for what they are - tinsel, wrapping, covering up nothing being done.

There have been plenty of warnings that could have instigated a coordinated deep look into all clubs and the AFL's treatment of Aboriginals. But nothing. Just more tinsel.

Now the AFL's tawdry efforts to protect players brains using half arsed expertise from a plagiarist denier. They put in place just enough rulings to appear to be doing something, when we all know the seriousness is way beyond what is being acknowledged, and if fair dinkum, there would be far more regulation around the risk.

To pull of an amazing trifecta, I am hoping gambling ad revenue in the AFL can muster its own scandal this week.

Those suggesting Gil should delay his stepping down to deal with these issues are mistaken. The facade carpenters and exterior joiners running the AFL should be marched out without delay, and replaced with people of integrity and with a value system beyond the dollar.

 

[Rob]

Well that's very unlike the AFL to just make it look like it's doing something without giving a s**t whether anything was actually done.

 

[TheRealComptroller]

FWIW it seems like there are bad faith operators on the other side of this issue also.

The most famous individual in the public’s mind on the issue of CTE awareness is the man Will Smith portrayed in the movie Concussion. It turns out his work might be highly questionable.

Wikipedia:

A January 2020 article[35] by Will Hobson, published in The Washington Post, contended that Omalu "routinely exaggerates his accomplishments and dramatically overstates the known risks of CTE and contact sports, fueling misconceptions about the disease, according to interviews with more than 50 experts in neurodegenerative disease and brain injuries, and a review of more than 100 papers from peer-reviewed medical journals." Further, "Omalu did not discover CTE, nor did he name the disease. The alarming statistics he recites about contact sports are distorted, according to the author of the studies that produced those figures. And while Omalu cultivates a reputation as the global authority on CTE, it’s unclear whether he is diagnosing it correctly, according to several experts on the disease.".

FWIW.

 

[cowboy18]

There's an update to this at retraction watch on McCrory's research integrity investigation. It doesn't inspire confidence in the research or the researcher. TLDR: 9 more retractions, 40 expressions of concern, and a lot of clouds over whether the expertise claimed is supported by their track record.

Concussion researcher Paul McCrory earns nine more retractions, nearly 40 expressions of concern

Paul McCrory A prominent sports medicine researcher who earlier this year had an editorial from his time as the top editor of the British Journal of Sports Medicine retracted for plagiarism has los…

retractionwatch.com

 

[HurleyHepsHird]

There's an update to this at retraction watch on McCrory's research integrity investigation. It doesn't inspire confidence in the research or the researcher. TLDR: 9 more retractions, 40 expressions of concern, and a lot of clouds over whether the expertise claimed is supported by their track record.

Concussion researcher Paul McCrory earns nine more retractions, nearly 40 expressions of concern

Paul McCrory A prominent sports medicine researcher who earlier this year had an editorial from his time as the top editor of the British Journal of Sports Medicine retracted for plagiarism has los…

retractionwatch.com

Yep, it seems BMJ are looking at retracting a whole host of his published work.

Still waiting to see how a couple of the cranks above can turn this into a culture-wars issue, instead of a case of gross academic malpractice.

Again I am reminded of the efforts relating to smoking and climate change, where vested industries and parties wheeled out dubious experts to undermine the changing consensus. The AFL needs to very quickly reorient its position on concussion and start to take the issue more seriously. Including accepting independent medical oversight/proposals around how concussions are managed and prevented.

 

[HurleyHepsHird]

Shocked to be sitting here:

AFL apologises to past players for 'under-funded' concussion research - AFL apologises to past players for 'under-funded' concussion research

 

[BigPond101]

Why would the AFL bother with concussion research the NFL and other big sports spend hundreds of millions on it surely. Just piggyback off their research. Of course there is a line of scientists trying to profit by doing in depth research on past players "Do you ever forget where you left your keys or wallet?" Ah-hah seems we have proof of concussion syndrome in ex players, for funding $$$ and an expense account we will continue investigations

 

[Lavender Bushranger]

Crazy huh.

A guy who has posed as a foremost global expert in brain injury and the risks to sportspeople and has long gone against the grain of the popular consensus (that suggests much high risks) was hired by the AFL to help author their concussion policy.

Turns out, after being accused of misrepresenting other peoples research, he now faces multiple accusations of plagiarism.

Worse than that, people are having a hard time accounting where all his grant money has gone, given he has just recycled prior work for upto a decade. It even looks like the AFL are struggling to point to what research he did and whether it met ethical guidelines, to inform their current positions.

Has a real Big Tobacco vibe about it. And maybe it is time that former or current club doctors and "experts" hired by say the AFL, who has a major conflict of interest when it comes to shielding itself from liability, no longer be allowed to make these decisions on their own.

Perhaps the AFLPA or the Department of Health need to step in and take on the right to appoint an independent panel that can review the risks posed by concussion and make binding changes to how clubs and the AFL manage player health and welfare.

New plagiarism claims against sport concussion guru Paul McCrory

Exclusive: Expert who has downplayed link between concussion and traumatic brain injury is accused of 10 more cases of plagiarism

www.theguardian.com

It's not crazy at all.

The AFL wheel out 'esteemed' people all the time, to get the results they require.

 

[CD Xbow]

There's an update to this at retraction watch on McCrory's research integrity investigation. It doesn't inspire confidence in the research or the researcher. TLDR: 9 more retractions, 40 expressions of concern, and a lot of clouds over whether the expertise claimed is supported by their track record.

Concussion researcher Paul McCrory earns nine more retractions, nearly 40 expressions of concern

Paul McCrory A prominent sports medicine researcher who earlier this year had an editorial from his time as the top editor of the British Journal of Sports Medicine retracted for plagiarism has los…

retractionwatch.com

I've been pleased to see the Karma bus come around and collect the lying and despicable Dr McCrory. He did something dreadful to a friend of mine, so his fall from grace has been enjoyable as it is just. There has been some real science done regarding concussion, a potential breakthrough finding biomarkers (IL-6, GFAP and UCH-L1 ) to measure for concussion. Early days but this could be big.
New blood test could improve diagnosis & management of concussion
Not sure the players are going to be happy getting a blood test every time they bump their noggins.