Brian Hainline, MD

Dr. Brian Hainline is chief medical officer of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, and  clinical professor of neurology at Indiana University School of Medicine and New York University School of Medicine.  As the NCAA’s first chief medical officer, Hainline oversees the NCAA Sport Science Institute, a national center of excellence whose mission is to promote and develop safety, excellence and wellness in college student-athletes, and to foster lifelong physical and mental development.  The NCAA Sport Science Institute works collaboratively with member institutions and Centers of Excellence across the United States.  For more than 25 years, Hainline has been actively involved in sports medicine.  He co-authored “Drugs and the Athlete”, and played a pivotal role in the development of drug testing and education protocols worldwide.  He has served on the New York State Athletic Commission and the USOC Sports Medicine Committee, and was a founding member of the executive committee of the American Academy of Neurology Sports Neurology Section, where he currently serves as chair.  Hainline has played a pivotal role in the development of health and safety standards in tennis, both nationally and internationally.  He was chief medical officer of the US Open Tennis Championships for 16 years, and then served as chief medical officer of the United States Tennis Association before moving to the NCAA.  He is chair of the International Tennis Federation Sport Science & Medicine Commission, and oversaw the rollout of international wheelchair tennis competition, a sport for which he wrote the rules of eligibility for both para- and quad-tennis. 

At the NCAA, Hainline developed, in partnership with the Department of Defense, the NCAA-DoD Grand Alliance, which includes the CARE Consortium, which is a multimillion-dollar study that aims to understand the natural history of concussion and neurobiological recovery in concussion.  The clinical study, with an advanced research component, is the largest  prospective clinical study ever conducted in the history of concussion.  The Grand Alliance also includes a Mind Matters educational and research initiative, the goal of which is to change the culture of concussion.  Hainline has taken a leadership role in addressing other pressing issues of student-athletes, including mental health, overuse injuries, alcohol and drug abuse, and sudden cardiac death.  He has developed key alliances with youth sport organizations, understanding that an effective sport model begins at youth and extends to college and beyond, with a premise that sport should be a model of wellness for life.