American Medical Society for Sports Medicine
For Immediate Release Jun 19, 2018

Dr. Hamish Kerr Named the Recipient of 2018 AMSSM-ACSM Clinical Research Grant

Hamish Kerr, MD has been named the 2018 recipient of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) Foundation-American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Foundation Clinical Research Grant for his research titled, “Prospective Investigation of Prevention of Concussion in Sports.”

In its 6th year, this collaborative project between the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine and the American College of Sports Medicine funds a single research award of $20,000.

Dr. Kerr and his research group presented some preliminary data at the 2018 AMSSM Annual Meeting in April 2018, and said he is excited to be able to continue the study.

“This award will allow us to continue investigating the factors that may play a role in re-injury after sustaining a concussion in sports,” Dr. Kerr said.

The research group Dr. Kerr is part of has partnered with Balance Engineering to allow pre-participation and post-injury balance assessment with their prototype Equilibrate. They have also partnered with Gatherer Systems to assess neck strength and endurance.

Dr. Kerr also expressed his gratitude to Dr. Richard Blinkhorn, the Department Chair of Medicine at Albany Medical Center, for his guidance and support.

“The pilot data collected through departmental funding was essential for our successful application for the AMSSM-ACSM Foundation Clinical Research Grant,” Dr. Kerr said. “This funding will permit another year of data collection through our protocol.

“We are enthusiastic that our research coordinators will be able to enroll sufficient patients to meet our anticipated targets during this time.”

“Assessing the risk of re-injury in those who have had sports-related concussions is a common dilemma to those caring for athletes,” said AMSSM and ACSM member Steven Stovitz, MD, who chaired the joint organization review committee. “Dr. Kerr’s project aims to identify differences in objective finding such as balance, strength and other factors such reaction time in those who do and do not suffer from a recurrent injury. Our committee was impressed with Dr. Kerr’s proposal and hope that the results will be useful for clinical sports medicine.”

Dr. Kerr is a board-certified primary care sports medicine physician whose interests include musculoskeletal medicine and the prevention of injury, teaching and sports medicine research. He is the head team physician for Siena College, Chair of Medical & Risk for USA Rugby, and serves World Rugby as a concussion consultant, team physician and senior medical educator. He was chosen as match day doctor for the Olympic Rugby Sevens Tournament, XXXI Olympiad, Rio de Janiero, Brazil in 2016.

He has trained both sides of the Atlantic, having completed medical school at the University of Glasgow and further postgraduate sports science training also. He completed combined internal medicine/pediatrics residency at Albany Medical Center, sports medicine fellowship at Children’s Hospital Boston. Dr. Kerr developed a sports medicine fellowship of his own in Albany, and is also a theme leader for the medical school’s 2nd year curriculum. His educational endeavors have been encouraged and supported by his Department.

Dr. Kerr has had a long-standing interest in research in contact sports. He has conducted injury surveillance projects in collegiate rugby, has investigated the biomechanics of heading in soccer and tackling in rugby, and has developed protocols with his partners at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for prevention of concussion. He received the T. David Sisk Award for Best Original Research Paper, Sports Health, in 2014 for a paper investigating the effect of neck strength on head acceleration in soccer. This investigation served as the foundation for the current hypothesis that neck strength and balance may contribute to prevention of re-injury after a concussion.

He recognized that concussion in sports was a key area for research early in his career. He runs a multi-specialty sports concussion clinic at Albany Medical Center, and is an attending physician for Capital Region Orthopedics. He is grateful for all he has learned from his patients and their families over the years, and hopes this award will contribute to improved health outcomes for future generations.

The primary purpose of the AMSSMF-ACSMF Clinical Research Grant Award is to foster original scientific investigations with a strong clinical focus among physician members of AMSSM and ACSM. A secondary intent of the grant program is to foster the development of the principal investigator’s research education by requiring that a portion of the funds to be applied to meet this goal. The review committee sought research proposals that investigate research questions within the broad discipline of sports medicine. The criteria required proposals to be led by physicians who are members of both AMSSM and ACSM.