Exhausted from a multiyear journey navigating a debilitating illness, Lainey Mathis received life-changing care from Ryan Lee, MD, whose new cerebrospinal fluid disorders center is already making a massive impact on patients.

It is granted annually to an individual who has impacted the field of neuropsychology through service and research within 10 years of receiving their doctoral degree. 

Glioma is a cancer that afflicts people of all ages, including children. It is the deadliest pediatric cancer, and it’s also perplexing, evading the advances made in recent decades for other cancers.

The role will concentrate on several initiatives meant to enhance the health and safety of NFL players and is an extension of Terry’s expertise and work on sport-related concussion and cumulative head impacts.

“Understanding the proportion of former players who think they have CTE — and identifying the common symptoms in those who believe they have CTE — is an important step for helping these individuals receive medical and mental health treatment,” said Douglas Terry, PhD, assistant professor and clinical neuropsychologist in the Department of Neurological Surgery and co-director of the Vanderbilt Sports Concussion Center.

Data from 4,189 former NFL athletes who spanned the ages of 24-89 show no evidence playing organized football younger than age 12 led to more cognitive, mood, sleep, cardiovascular or other health issues later in life. These results, which are published in Sports Medicine, contrast with previous small studies from a decade ago.

Focused ultrasound treatment is a minimally invasive procedure for the treatment of tremors or Parkinson’s disease performed in an outpatient clinic with MRI as the navigation tool.