Health on the silver screen

A prominent UF Health researcher will be immortalized on the big screen when the drama sports film “Concussion” is released in December. In the film, actor Eddie Marsan plays Steven T. DeKosky, M.D., interim director of the Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute and a professor of neurology in the College of Medicine. The movie is about forensic pathologist Bennet Omalu, M.D., played by Will Smith, who discovers that football players are at risk for serious medical conditions caused by concussions and other blows to the head. Omalu then finds himself up against the National Football League, which wants to keep the findings from being published. The movie was filmed in Pittsburgh, where DeKosky was director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Alzheimer’s disease center and chair of the neurology department. An international leader in Alzheimer’s disease research, DeKosky was hired by UF earlier this year. The Columbia Pictures film will hit theaters Dec. 25. — Doug Bennett