ROBERT CANTU, MD
Chief of Neurosurgery Service and Director of Sports Medicine
Emerson Hospital, Concord, MA

Co-Director, Neurologic Sports Injury Center
Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA

Currently Dr. Cantu’s professional responsibilities include those of Chief of Neurosurgery Service, Chairman Department of Surgery, and Director of Sports Medicine at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Massachusetts, adjunct professor Exercise and Sport Science, University North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Co-Director, Neurological Sports Injury Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Neurosurgical Consultant to the Boston Eagles football team, and Neurosurgical Consultant to the Boston Cannons professional lacrosse team.

He has authored over 300 scientific publications, including 21 books on neurosurgery and sports medicine, in addition to numerous book chapters, peer-reviewed papers, abstracts and free communications, and educational videos. He has served as associate editor of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise and Exercise and Sports Science Review, and on the editorial board of The Physician and Sports Medicine, Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine, and Journal of Athletic Training.  In 2003 Dr. Cantu became the section head for the Sports Medicine Section of Neurosurgery.

In addition to his professional responsibilities, Dr. Cantu is medical director of the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research, an ongoing registry instituted in 1982 for data collection and analysis of spine and head injuries.  From this data important contributions have been made in sport safety and accident reduction; most notably football rule changes concerning tackling and blocking with the head, the establishment of football helmet standards, improved on-the-field medical care, and coaching techniques.  He also serves on the Board of Trustees as Vice President of NOCSAE (National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment).

Dr. Cantu published the first ever return-to-play guidelines for sports concussions in 1986.  Slightly revised in 2001 and still the most widely recognized guidelines by athletic trainers, he devised the first grading system for concussions based on symptoms at the time of injury (Grades 1, 2, 3) and provided medical professionals with concussion management guidelines where there existed none before.

Dr. Cantu served as President of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), the oldest and largest sports medicine and exercise science organization in the world, from 1992 to 1993 and as treasurer from 1996 to 1999.  He received their Citation Award in 1996.  At the 2007 ACSM’s annual meeting, Dr. Cantu was asked to give the prestigious J.B. Dill Lecture, and presented "The History of Concussions."

Dr. Cantu has participated in nationally televised sports programs speaking on diverse sports issues, sometimes as a spokesperson for the ACSM, and often as an independent expert; he has appeared on NFL Today with Bryant Gumbel and Terry Bradshaw discussing the effect of artificial turf on cervical spine injuries, World News Tonight with Peter Jennings regarding NASCAR safety issues and the death of driver Dale Earnhardt, and on ABC World News Tonight with Bob Jamison and ESPN’s Outside the Lines to speak about heat stroke and NFL player Korey Stringer’s tragic death. In 2007, he was interviewed on HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, ESPN’s Outside the Lines, and is frequently quoted in the New York Times.

Dr. Cantu is frequently invited to participate in symposia addressing sports medicine topics ranging from anabolic steroid use, eating disorders in female athletes, and the special health and exercise concerns of senior citizens to acute and chronic brain injury in boxing, and on-the-field evaluation, medical management, and return to play guidelines following head and spine sports injuries.  In June, 2007, he was one of only four non-NFL experts asked by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to participate in the NFL’s historic concussion summit in Chicago, where he gave two presentations.

Dr. Cantu grew up in the northern California community of Santa Rosa. In 1960, he received his B.A. degree from the University of California Berkley where he pitched on the varsity baseball team.  Jointly, in medical school and graduate school, he received his M.A. degree in endocrinology in 1962, and in 1963, his M.D. from the University of California Medical School in San Francisco.  Following a surgical internship at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City in 1963-1964, he began a neurosurgery residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and simultaneous position of research fellow in physiology at Harvard Medical School.  Upon completion of his residency in 1968, he joined the neurosurgery staff at MGH, where his practice and laboratory were located, while assuming the position of acting assistant director of neurosurgery and director of pediatric neurosurgery at Boston City Hospital.  After five yeas of academic neurosurgery with Harvard Hospitals, Dr. Cantu entered private neurosurgery practice at the suburban Emerson Hospital in Concord, Massachusetts where he currently practices.

Practicing what he preaches, Dr. Cantu has enjoyed long-distance running since 1967. An official entrant in many Boston Marathons, he has also enjoyed the “long runs” at Newport and New York City.  Besides running, Dr. Cantu is an avid tennis player, and for many years was ranked in the New England men’s senior singles (NELTA) region.  Dr. Cantu has two children, Rob and Elizabeth, and lives with his wife Tina in Lincoln, Massachusetts.

Publications: 304

Books: 21

Book Chapters: 78

Refereed Articles: 118

Non-Refereed Articles: 35

Abstracts and Free Communications: 29

Sports Medicine Educational Videos: 15

IN PRESS: 10