The Q-Collar — a neck collar inspired by the woodpecker — has been worn by NFL players and thousands of young athletes. When it debuted in 2012, it originally promised to reduce concussion risk by lightly squeezing the jugular veins, supposedly stabilizing the brain. By 2019, it started to use more ambiguous language, saying the device could “ protect the brain .” The company raised tens of millions of dollars and proudly advertises that it is “FDA authorized.” To most consumers, that sounds like proof.

It isn’t, as a colleague and I detailed in an investigation in The BMJ recently.

Our Freedom of Information Act request revealed that FDA reviewers had serious reservations. Internal memos show staff debating weak data, acknowledging that MRI findings didn’t match real-world inj

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