M. Nadir Haider, MD, PhD

Professional Summary

My primary interests are related to implementing high-quality research and data analytical techniques to improve the diagnosis and management of traumatic injuries, and the vast majority of my work has been in athletes with sport-related concussions (SRC). Currently, I am the lead statistician in the Department of Orthopedics and mentor medical students, residents, and fellows throughout the analysis portion of their research activities. I received my M.B.B.S from Dow Medical College in Pakistan and subsequently my M.D. equivalence from the US. I then came to Buffalo to do a traumatic brain injury research fellowship in the Department of Psychiatry under Dr Barry Willer, PhD and worked on the Healthy Ageing Mind study that identified functional and neurobehavioral impairments in retired professional contact sport athletes who had a high suspicion of chronic traumatic encephalopathy. This sparked my interest in the specific symptom of exercise-induced symptom exacerbation after acute SRC and its relationship with autonomic dysfunction and started my PhD in Neuroscience to understand why this symptom occurs. For this, I had to develop novel methods to measure cerebral blood flow (CBF) and CBF autoregulation and was able to prove a link between the lack of downstream microvascular resistance and the onset of headaches during exercise. Due to the amount of mathematical modeling required in this project, I also graduated with an Advanced Certificate in Applied Statistics.

During this time, I also worked with my mentor, Dr John Leddy, MD, to improve methods of graded exertion testing for prescribing individualized exercise and developed the Buffalo Concussion Bike Test, an alternative to the world-renowned Buffalo Concussion Treadmill Test, for patients with excessive balance dysfunction and/or orthopedic injuries, as well as the low-cost Buffalo Concussion March-in-Place Test for military service members. I also worked under Drs Leddy and Willer in performing several randomized controlled trials that proved an active rehabilitation approach for SRC (termed the Buffalo Protocol) significantly reduced the duration of symptoms and the incidence of delayed recovery and persisting symptoms, and am currently working on improving brain injury management guidelines in the Department of Defense. I also manage the UBMD Concussion Patient registry and worked on improving data retrieval and management techniques which has provided publishable data for dozens of manuscripts that are published in high-ranking journals.

Education & Training

• PhD, Neuroscience, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo (2021)
• Certificate, Advanced Certificate in Applied Statistical Analysis, School of Public Health and Health Professions, University at Buffalo (2020)
• MD, Dow Medical College (2014)

Employment

• Director of Research, Orthopedics, Concussion Management and Research Center (2023-present)
• Assistant Professor, Orthopedics, University at Buffalo (2022-present)
• Lead Statistician, UBMD Orthopedics and Sports Medicine (2022-present)
• Assistant Director of Research, Orthopedics, Concussion Management and Research Center (2020–2023)
• Research Assistant Professor, Orthopedics, University at Buffalo (2019–2022)

Research Expertise

• Biostatistics
• Concussion
• Mild traumatic brain injury
• Sport-related injury

Grants & Sponsored Research

• September 2022–August 2027
  Exercise Reset for Concussion- Modifying the Buffalo Concussion Protocol for Application in a Military Environment
  Department of Defense
  Role: Co-Investigator
• January 2022–December 2022
  Epigenetic and Cytokine Biomarkers During Recovery from Sports-Related Concussion
  CTSI/NIH
  Role: Co-Investigator
• April 2020–March 2022
  Developing eye tracking technology for roadside cannabis assessment
  Role: Principal Investigator
• January 2021–December 2021
  Classifying Sports-Related Concussions by Symptom Profiles
  CTSI/NIH
  Role: Co-Investigator
• September 2020–August 2021
  Exercise Tolerance Testing and Progressive Return to Activity Treatment – the Buffalo Concussion Assessment and Treatment Protocol for the Military
  Department of Defense
  Role: Contributor
• August 2018–August 2020
  Sub-symptom aerobic exercise therapy to improve recovery from acute sport-related concussion
  American Medical Society of Sports Medicine
  Role: Co-Investigator

Professional Memberships

• American Statistical Association
• American College of Sports Medicine
• American Medical Society for Sports Medicine
• International Brain Injury Association
• Pakistan Medical and Dental Council
• Internation Federation of Infection Control