Controversial Dr. Elliot Pellman has been replaced at a second post at a major pro sports league. http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/m-l-b-names-new-medical-director/
Major League Baseball announced Tuesday that it had replaced Pellman as its chief medical director with Dr. Gary Green. Pellman will remain with the MLB in an advisory capacity.
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20100414&content_id=9290282&vkey=pr_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
Roughly a month ago Pellman, who serves as the team physician for the New York Jets, stepped down from the National Football League’s committee on concussions.
Pellman has been the subject of much controversy as the issue of the NFL and concussions came into the national spotlight. He authored a number of the 13 papers that were published in Neurosurgery, a journal, that suggested policies on concussions that were counter to independent research findings, according to The New York Times.
The Times also did an expose in 2005 that found that Pellman had exaggerated some aspects of his medical education in an official biography and resume that were done for an appearance he was set to make at a Congressional panel.
Pellman’s replacement Green has served as a consultant to the MLB on anabolic steroids and performance-enhancing substances since 2003.
As MLB medical director, Green will evaluate baseball’s drug prevention and treatment programs at the major and minor league levels and make recommendations on updates to the programs.
He also will serve as the MLB’s Office of the Commissioner’s primary liaison to club physicians and certified athletic trainers. Green will assist in the development of educational programs and materials and will advise on all issues related to the health and safety of MLB personnel.
“Dr. Green has been an outstanding asset to Major League Baseball as a consultant, and we are pleased that this expanded role will provide him an opportunity to make significant contributions to our game,” Baseball Commissioner Allan “Bud” Selig said in a statement.
Green, who joined the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) Department of Family Medicine in 1988, currently serves as a clinical professor in the Division of Sports Medicine at The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
Green has researched performance-enhancing drug use in athletics through the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory. For five years, he chaired the NCAA Committee on drug testing and drug education.
Green, who is board-certified in both internal medicine and sports medicine, is a fellow in the American College of Physicians and the American College of Sports Medicine. He also has a private medical practice, the Pacific Palisades Medical Group, in California.
