May 2026 Sideline Report
IN THIS ISSUE:
Game Plan Equestrian Safety | Fitness and Activity | Athlete Mental Health | Concussion | New in the Learning Center | Faculty Presentations | Publications | Get Involved
GAMEPLAN FILM SERIES: EQUESTRIAN SAFETY
Coming in June: Equestrian Safety Training Film Built for Real Emergencies
When a horse rider falls and might have a serious injury, do you know what to do in the first few minutes? A new film helps to answer that.
This June, The Sports Institute will release a new equestrian safety film built around addressing an important knowledge gap: what to do until medical help arrives when there’s a possible head or spinal injury from an equestrian accident. The film contains 12 modules aimed at educating different audiences: competitive and recreational equestrians, competition officials and volunteers, and emergency medical services responders. The project was led by TSI Director Dr. Cindy Lin, a sports medicine physician and lifelong equestrian, in partnership with Seattle Fire Department’s Medic One and the US Eventing Association Foundation. It was filmed at Aspen Farms in Yelm, WA by The Distillery videography and is designed for outreach in rural areas where it can take a longer time to get emergency medical help.
One of the people who helped shape the film from the ground up is Alyssa Randall, a medical student in the WWAMI program (the University of Washington’s five-state medical education consortium) who grew up around horses in Kodiak. Read the full story on our News & Events page to learn how her experience and perspective influenced everything from the research to the script to what ended up on screen.
FITNESS AND ACTIVITY
Do Wearables Make You Healthier or Just More Anxious?
Your ring says your sleep score dropped. Your watch flags low recovery before you’ve even finished your first cup of coffee. Wearable devices track more health data than ever, but more data doesn’t automatically make you healthier. Find out what TSI Director Dr. Cindy Lin says in Right as Rain by UW Medicine about using your wearable wisely, and knowing when to take it off.
Photo: Drazen Zigic/Magnific
ATHLETE MENTAL HEALTH
Building Mental Strength: A First-of-Its-Kind Program for Young Athletes
Teen athletes face a growing mental health crisis. One in three teens reports emotional distress like anxiety and depression, yet coaches are not equipped to support athletes with these issues. The Sports Institute’s Mental Strength Training (MST) program is built to change that.
After a successful pilot in 2025, in which more than 200 high school athletes at two Seattle public schools learned coping skills for stress, TSI responded to athletes’ and coaches’ requests by building a mobile app and developing a Mental Health GamePlan film series. The film focuses on teaching “mental health CPR,” clearly detailing what to do if an athlete is suicidal, aggressive or otherwise emotionally in crisis. Both are funded entirely by philanthropic gifts, including support from the Prentice Family Foundation, the Garvey Institute for Brain Health Solutions, and a significant recent contribution from the Erick Shirley Foundation for Mental Health.
“Most mental health tools use language that athletes tune out, words like ‘calm’ and ‘relax’ that don’t connect with the competitive mindset,” said Dr. Sara Chrisman, the pediatrician and researcher leading the program. “MST teaches the same skills through breathing exercises, sleep habits, and emotional regulation strategies, but frames them as performance tools. That’s the language coaches and athletes already speak.”
“Most mental health tools use language that athletes tune out.”
Sara Chrisman, MD, MPH
TSI is uniquely positioned to lead this work. As part of UW Medicine, TSI combines clinical and research expertise with established partnerships across the youth sports world, including leadership from colleagues in pediatrics (Sara Chrisman, MD) and psychology (Kevin Alschuler, PhD and Tracy Herring, PhD), and a strong relationship with the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association. Our research shows no other program addresses youth athlete mental health from both directions simultaneously, equipping coaches and other adults with in-the-moment tools while also putting evidence-based skills directly in athletes’ hands.
Photo: Jean-Daniel Francouer/Pexels.com
The MST app uses the biopsychosocial model as its framework, grounded in the idea that psychological resilience draws from biological, psychological and sociological processes. Modules guide athletes through breathing exercises, sleep improvement, team cohesion activities, and more. Athletes also build a personal music playlist to support emotional regulation, letting them shape the tool around their own needs.
Taylor Inouye, a Husky Fellow at TSI and coxswain for the UW Woman’s Rowing team, spent months testing existing breathing and sleep apps to inform what MST builds. The Husky Fellowship is a philanthropy-supported position at TSI, giving student-athletes hands-on experience alongside TSI’s faculty and staff.
“The apps athletes will actually use are simple, explain the science quickly, and let users make the experience their own,” said Inouye. “The biggest gap in existing apps: they tell athletes to ‘breathe and relax’ with no context. Our modules show athletes why a technique works and how to apply the technique when the pressure is on.”
“The biggest gap in existing apps: they tell athletes to ‘breathe and relax’ with no context.”
Taylor Inouye, TSI Husky Fellow
The Mental Health GamePlan film series will include four to five modules addressing the situations coaches and athletes most frequently encounter, from panic attacks to aggression and conflict, giving coaches, athletic trainers, and athletes tools to respond in the moment.
Your support of our Mental Strength Training program makes this work possible. If you’d like to bring the program to your school or team, or to help shape its development, please contact us at tsiadmin@uw.edu.
CONCUSSION
Why a “Mild” TBI Diagnosis Can Be Misleading – and Harmful
One minute you’re skiing at Snoqualmie Pass, the next you’re in the ER with a concussion after a wipeout. Accidents can happen to anyone, even if you’re being careful — and anyone can get a traumatic brain injury like a concussion.
TSI Research Director Christine Mac Donald, PhD, is working to give TBI patients more accurate diagnoses and better access to care. Read more.
Photo: Anna Shvets/ Pexels.com
NEW IN THE LEARNING CENTER
Oksana Masters: The Mind Behind the Medals
Oksana Masters has competed in eight consecutive Paralympics, winning 24 medals across Nordic skiing, biathlon, rowing, and cycling. At the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Paralympics, she earned five gold medals. Born in Ukraine and raised in three orphanages before being adopted at age seven, she faced two leg amputations before she was 15. But what drives her success goes beyond physical training.
Photo: Rob Jones/Creative Commons
Masters has spent years developing the mental skills that separate elite competitors from the rest: visualization, controlled breathing, adaptability, and the ability to reset after setbacks. She credits a sports psychologist with transforming her results.
Her story illustrates the fundamentals that Mental Strength Training is built around.
Read the full story in The Sports Institute’s Learning Center
FACULTY PRESENTATIONS
TSI’s Stan Herring, Cindy Lin, and Sara Chrisman with Jonathan Finnoff, Chief Medical Officer of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, at the 40th Annual Justus F. Lehmann Symposium, May 2026.
Drs. Herring, Lin, and Chrisman presented on TSI’s work; Dr. Finnoff delivered the day’s keynote address.
Dr. Stan Herring delivered the Rusty M. Wright Memorial Lecture at the American Osteopathic Academy of Sports Medicine (AOASM) 2026 Clinical Conference on April 30. Selection as the Wright Memorial lecturer is among the highest honors AOASM bestows on a member of the sports medicine community. Dr. Wright was a founding member of AOASM who served at five Olympic events and left a legacy of courage, commitment, and mentorship that continues to define the field.
Dr. Herring’s presentation, “The Zackery Lystedt Story: The History of Youth Concussion Laws,” traced how Washington State’s Lystedt Law became the model for youth sports concussion legislation across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Zack and his father Victor gave a touching tribute to Dr. Herring at the conference.
Stanley Herring, MD Presentations
- Concussion: The Ones We Left Behind, American Medical Society for Sports Medicine Annual Conference. Seattle, WA. April 2026
- Advanced Topics in Complex Concussion Care, American Medical Society for Sports Medicine Annual Conference. Seattle, WA. April 2026
At the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Salt Lake City, UT. October 2025:
- Chair of Panel Discussion: When to Order Additional Tests or Refer to a Specialist
- Chair of Panel Discussion: Getting Back in the Game
- Hands-On Skills Training: Faculty Demonstrations
- Skills, Training, Evaluation, and Performance (STEP) Concussion and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Certificate Program – Live Course
Ask the Experts: Spine Injury in Athletes. International Pain in Spine Intervention Society Webinar. Virtual Presentation. October 2025.
SELECTED FACULTY PUBLICATIONS
ExerciseRxTM Study Publications
Stovall, R., Li, R., et al. Evaluating the Performance and Acceptability of an Artificial Intelligence Digital Health Exercise Platform in Females With and Without Axial Spondyloarthritis: A Phase I Study. Adv Rheumatol 66, 17 (2026).
Ehde D, Simmons S, Alschuler K, Herring T, Humbert A, Robles S, Ioseliani O, Landis K, Kavanagh L, Lin C. Increasing Physical Activity via Provider Support and Engagement Using a Digital Health Platform in Adults With Multiple Sclerosis: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIR Res Protoc 2025;14:e72213.
Stanley Herring, MD Publications
Herring SA, Putukian M, et al. The Adolescent Athlete and the Team Physician: A Consensus Statement – 2025 Update. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2026;58(2):371-402.
Herring SA, Cali M. Pain Management in the Athlete. In: O’Connor FG, Davis BA, Hudson KB, Ireland ML, Sallis RE, Wilder RP, Zaremski JL, eds. ACSM’s Sports Medicine: A Comprehensive Review. 2nd ed. Wolters Kluwer; 2026:643-650.
Christine Mac Donald, PhD Publications
Mac Donald, CL, Yue JK, et al. Neuroworsening from a Normal Glasgow Coma Scale Motor Score in the Emergency Department is an Early Predictor of Neurosurgical Intervention, Hospital Outcomes, and Longitudinal Disability in Traumatic Brain Injury: A TRACK-TBI Study. Injury. 2026 Feb 6:113089. Epub ahead of print.
Mac Donald, CL, Domínguez D JF, et al. Bridging Mental Health, Cognition and the Brain in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: A Multilayer Network Analysis of the TRACK-TBI study. Neuroimage Clin. 2026;49:103957. Epub 2026 Feb 2.
Mac Donald, CL, Sytsma K, et al. Traumatic Micro-Hemorrhages are Not Synonymous with Axonal Injury. Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology. 20 January 2026.
Mac Donald, CL, Greil ME, et al. External Ventricular Drain Versus Intraparenchymal Pressure Monitor in Severe Traumatic Brain Injury: A TRACK-TBI Study. Neurosurgery. 2026 Jan 1;98(1):115-126. Epub 2025 Jun 30.
Mac Donald, CL, Young MJ, et al. Sharing Clinically Relevant Research Results with Active-Duty Special Operations Forces: Toward an Ethical Framework for Responsible Disclosure. Journal of Neurotrauma. Jan 2026.
Mac Donald, CL, Eagle SR, et al. Interaction of Obese Body Mass Index and Comorbidities on Inflammatory Profiles and Clinical Outcomes After Traumatic Brain Injury: A TRACK-TBI Study. Obes Sci Pract. 2025 Dec 21;11(6):e70101.
Mac Donald, CL, Sloane K, et al. Associations of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Depression with Cognitive Performance Over the First Year Following Glasgow Coma Scale 13-15 Traumatic Brain Injury: A TRACK-TBI Study. BMJ Ment Health. 2025 Dec 17;28(1):e302080.
Mac Donald, CL, Temkin N, et al. Effect of Two Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended Scoring Methods on Traumatic Brain Injury Clinical Trial Design: A TRACK-TBI Study. J Neurotrauma. 2025 Dec 30:8977151251405878.
Mac Donald, CL, Karthik Gopinath, et al. From Low Field to High Value: Robust Cortical Mapping from Low-Field MRI. arXiv:2505.12228.
Mac Donald, CL, Curl, PK, et al. Comparative Leukoariosis Quantification Between 2 and 3-Dimensional Fluid Attenuated Inversion Recovery Brain MRI Sequences. Clinical Neuroimaging. 2026;3(1):e70049.
Mac Donald, CL, Freeman HJ, et al. Unsupervised Semi-Automated MRI Segmentation Detects Cortical Lesion Expansion in Chronic Traumatic Brain Injury. Front. Neurol. 2025;16:1640514.
Mac Donald, CL, Nelson LD, et al. Beyond Mild, Moderate, and Severe Traumatic Brain Injury: Modelling Severity from Clinical, Neuroimaging, and Blood-Based Indicators. EBioMedicine. 2025 Nov;121:106001. Epub 2025 Nov 4.
Mac Donald, CL, Gotthardt CJ, et al. Longitudinal Pain Intensity and Interference Symptomatology in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: A TRACK-TBI Study. Pain. 2025 Nov 19. Epub ahead of print.
Mac Donald, CL, Wongsripuemtet P, et al. Association of Preinjury Beta-Blocker Exposure With Brain Injury Biomarkers Following Traumatic Brain Injury. J Neurosurg Anesthesiol. 2026 Apr 1;38(2):155-160. Epub 2025 Sep 30.
GET IN THE GAME!
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