NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr speaks with The Associated Press on Monday, June 19, 2017.
(AP photo/Mike Segar)Donald Fehr, executive director of the NHLPA, spoke Monday with the Associated Press to discuss the league’s efforts to promote hair transplants in the United States.
He said he was pleased with the league and its outreach efforts.
The NHL has made significant strides in promoting transplants, which have helped reduce the number of people dying from head and neck cancers in the U.S.
Ahead of the 2018 Winter Classic in Boston, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said he would make the NHL a no-bid organization to allow more people to undergo the surgery.
“There are some people out there who think it is OK to have a procedure, or even if it is a no brainer, we should have it done,” Bettman told the AP.
“We don’t want to be a buyer, we don’t believe in it.”
The league is also working to raise awareness about the need for transplants.
It has hired a media outreach team and launched a campaign called “Make Your Own,” which features interviews with transplant patients and medical professionals.
The campaign is expected to launch this month.
The NBA is also looking at its transplant program, but hasn’t yet released any details.
The NHLPA is expected in talks with NHL commissioner Don Fehr about a potential joint venture to make head and tail hair transplans more widely available in the next few years.
The league has spent $1.2 billion on head and other body parts since 1995, according to a report from ESPN’s Darren Rovell.
In recent years, the NHL has added more players, players training camps and other equipment.
The head transplant program is expected make a significant dent in head and body cancer, a disease that has already claimed the lives of more than 3,200 people.
A study released in September showed that nearly one-third of head transplants will likely be performed in the coming years.