💻 Essential

As a primary care sports medicine physician, my goal is to provide the best evidence-based evaluation and treatment practices to patients with concussion and post-concussion syndrome and to conduct clinical and physiological research on these conditions. I currently serve as medical director of the University at Buffalo Concussion Management Clinic, which is located at UB South Campus. This is the first center in the United States to use a standardized treadmill test to establish recovery from concussion and to use exercise in the rehabilitation of patients with prolonged concussion symptoms. I’m also the director of outcomes research for the Department of Orthopaedics and program director for the UB Primary Care Sports Medicine fellowship.My primary research interest is the investigation of the basic mechanisms of the disturbance of whole body physiology in concussion and how to help to restore the physiology to normal to help patients recover to safely return to activity and sport. I have published in the fields of orthopedics, sports medicine, physiology, nutrition, concussion and post-concussion syndrome.As a professor of Clinical Orthopaedics, Internal Medicine, and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, I enjoy educating the next generation of physicians. I am proud to say that the educational experience at UB exposes young physicians to exceptional patient care based upon the latest research and that their experience is informed and enhanced by immersion in the research experience itself.

_{Source: University at Buffalo, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences}

Dustin is a certified athletic trainer (ATC) licensed in the state of Illinois and has been practicing as an outreach athletic trainer for hospitals and secondary schools for the past 20 years. Dustin received his undergraduate degree from Colorado State University - Pueblo in Biology (Sports Medicine emphasis) and went on to achieve his Masters in Health & Exercise Science from Colorado State University. During his formative years of a high school athletic trainer Dustin gravitated to concussions as an issue he was seeing. Not only the injury itself, but the treatment and recovery from.

Dustin has endured many concussions being an athlete and skier growing up. This led him to creating his website, theconcussionblog.com, where he aggregated all the common information for the assessment and treatment of concussion to keep “everyone on the same page”. Dustin has spent over 7,000 hours researching and understanding concussions including continual education on the matter. His ability to be a conduit between the scholarly information and the actual patient and their caregivers make him unique in this field.

Brenda Eagan-Johnson Ed.D., CBIST has over two decades of experience in the field of pediatric brain injury, education, and neuro-developmental issues in children. Dr. Eagan-Johnson is instrumental in the creation, ongoing development, and daily oversight of the nationally recognized Pennsylvania statewide child and adolescent brain injury school consulting program, BrainSTEPS – Brain Injury School Re-Entry Consulting Program.  She also serves as a consultant for a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funded study related to BrainSTEPS outcomes led by CWRU and OSU. Through her work, Dr. Eagan-Johnson regularly trains medical, rehabilitation, and school staff on the identification, symptoms, and educational treatment methods to improve cognitive, executive function, behavioral, social, and communication skills, as well as transition strategies, for students who sustain acquired brain injuries.

Dr. Eagan-Johnson received her master’s degree in transition special education specializing in pediatric brain injury from George Washington University, where she has served as an adjunct instructor since 2015. She holds a Doctor of Education degree in Mind, Brain, and Teaching (educational neuroscience) from Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Eagan-Johnson serves on the Board of Governors for the Academy of Certified Brain Injury Specialists under the Brain Injury Association of America. In this position, she is helping to write the pediatric portion of a new national concussion certification. She has held a Certified Brain Injury Specialist certification since 2008 and is a CBIS Trainer. Dr. Eagan-Johnson has three teaching certifications and serves on three national advisory boards.  Dr. Eagan-Johnson is published in pediatric brain injury, regularly presents at the national and international levels, and has received multiple awards for her work. She was the co-lead for the 1st Concussion Return to Learn Consensus for the National Collaborative on Children’s Brain Injury, which is endorsed by 12 national organizations. Spearheading development and creation of Pennsylvania’s Return to Learn Concussion Management Team Model, now endorsed by two State Departments of Education, Dr. Eagan-Johnson has trained over 3,000 school-based concussion teams since 2013.

Dr Eagan-Johnson has been asked to speak many times for Pennsylvania’s Legal Aid Network and Neighborhood Legal Services. Over the past decade, she has been an invited speaker numerous times for the federal organization that oversees state civil legal aid in Washington, DC, including Congressional and Senate panel briefings and audiences of supreme court justices, where she advocated for legal aid for victims of IPV & child abuse. Dr. Eagan-Johnson served on the board for her local Crisis Shelter and is a member of the ENIGMA Brain Injury IPV group. Her passion in this field began when she was 14 years old and her 13 year old brother sustained a severe TBI.

Dr. Herget is a Senior Physical Therapist, Board Certified Sports Clinical Specialist, Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, Certified Clinical Instructor and Certified Emergency Medical Responder at the MGH Sports Medicine Center.  She is a member of the New England Patriots Medical Staff and serves as the Concussion Rehabilitation Consultant to the Boston Bruins, Boston Red Sox, New England Revolution, Boston Celtics, Home Base Program, Special Operator Program and the MGH Sports Concussion Clinic.  

She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre and Psychology from Wheaton College in 2000, her Masters in Education degree from SUNY in 2005, her post baccalaureate pre-med certificate from Hunter College in 2006 and her Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from MGH Institute of Health Professions in 2009. 

Dr Herget’s practice includes rehabilitating athletes who have sustained a sports concussion, most specifically evaluating and treating high school through professional level athletes with concussions and assisting in their safe return to play. Her clinical expertise is in the cervicogenic contributions and visuo-vestibular treatment of athletes and military personnel who sustain concussions as well as the progression of exercise through exertional protocols. Her research has focused on management of athletes with post-concussion syndrome and the efficacy of pre-season and post-season visuo-vestibular testing to aid in return to play decision making, differentiating between concussion and cervicogenic symptom presentation, alternative exercise testing protocols, atypical mTBI presentations and considerations in the military population. She has lectured nationally on the topics of concussion and the non-acute management of athletes with post-concussive syndrome.

Becky Bliss, PT, DPT, DHSc has been actively practicing in the field of Physical Therapy for over two decades with specialization in concussion management since 2006.  Her research interests include dysfunction of the vestibular ocular reflex following mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) as well as early detection of impairments that lead to post-concussion syndrome. She currently has several active studies specific to higher level motor control deficit identification in the sport athlete. Dr. Bliss is active within the Academy of Neurological Physical Therapy and serves on the Knowledge Translation Committee for the Concussion Clinical Prediction Guideline (CPG) while serving on part of the core committee of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) Concussion CPG Revision group.