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In 2010, at a Seattle Seahawks football game, Samuel Browd, MD, PhD, a neurosurgeon and director of the Sports Institute at UW Medicine, had a moment of inspiration. At the time, he was working on the sidelines as a physician for the team. When a player dropped his helmet on the ground, something clicked for Browd.
“The helmet made this thud, like he was dropping a brick,” says Browd. “It struck me that the evolution of helmets had gone from leather to the current state they were in, and it felt kind of static.”
He had been working for years with football players who’d had concussions, and he knew that little had changed in football helmet design since the adoption of plastic in the 1950s. Meanwhile, concerns about the effects of traumatic brain injuries were becoming more widespread, including the risk of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a brain disease found in people who have experienced repeated head injuries.
Browd decided to explore how football helmets could better mitigate the force of getting hit. The ensuing journey led to a transformation in head safety for everyone, from youth players to NFL stars.
Developing a new helmet
After that Seahawks game, Browd sketched an idea for a new helmet that could better protect players’ skulls and brains. He then called his colleague, Per Reinhall, PhD, the chair of mechanical engineering at the time at the University of Washington School of Engineering, who met with Browd to discuss it.
“We knew that when the head was hit, the brain would spin inside the skull a little bit, which created forces that led to a concussion,” says Browd. “The idea was to come up with materials that would slow the impact, reducing the force that’s transmitted to the brain.”
Reinhall and his team then began testing different materials and measuring how well they mitigated the force of a hit. After developing a prototype, conducting more testing, and talking with players and team doctors, Browd and Reinhall had a helmet ready to go to market.
Launching a new company
In 2013, Browd and Reinhall raised enough money to launch a company to produce these new-and-improved helmets. By 2016, the first version of their helmet was ready. Teams close to home and across the country began using them, from youth and college teams like the UW Huskies, to NFL teams like the Kansas City Chiefs.
“One of the most powerful things for me was to see my local high school go out and fundraise to bring these helmets onto their field,” says Browd. “A lot of kids in my community were wearing it, and these are all kids and families that I knew. The idea that we were making it safer for their kids to be able to participate in these sports was a really powerful, life-changing, meaningful experience for me.”
Browd and Reinhall shifted the perspective on football helmets from traditional equipment, like socks or shoulder pads, to that of a medical device.
“We repositioned it as a piece of medical equipment with the idea that brain health is extraordinarily important,” says Browd. “We wanted the players to play long careers, play safely and not have any long-term issues related to CTE or other long-term brain issues from their years of playing.”
Long-term plans
Even with pro athletes using these improved helmets, it doesn’t mean Browd’s work is done. He continues to seek ways to protect athletes better.
He believes that the ability to take ideas, build on them and conduct experiments and clinical trials is how the medical field can make society better and healthier. And research is the driving force behind that.
“It’s a really special thing at the University of Washington and UW Medicine to be able to think about problems that face our patients and be in a position to go look for solutions,” says Browd. “I may touch 10,000 lives in my career, but if I come up with a device or if I have an idea that can lead to better patient care, I can impact millions and millions of people.”
