AMSSM Houston 2019 was Great! (We Already have Atlanta 2020 on our Minds!)

April 18, 2019 by Leave a comment

One of the many excellent talks at this year’s AMSSM meeting in Houston

Our Junior Associate Editor Dr. Jason Zaremski — well known to readers of this blog for his recurring journal club posts — was among several of the CJSM Editorial Board down in Houston recently for the annual meeting of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine.

Dr. Zaremski is a newly-elected member of the AMSSM Board of Directors as well as a member of the CJSM Editorial Board, and so he is uniquely qualified to give his fresh perspective on some the highlights of the meeting.

Have at it Dr. Z!

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Jason Zaremski M.D.

Good-bye Houston! [see you soon Atlanta!]

The 28th Annual American Medical Society for Sports Medicine Annual Meeting just ended and it was a wonderful assembly of sports medicine physicians from the United States and around the world, all gathering in Houston April 12 – 17.

A wonderful addition to the conference this year was the Youth Early Sport Specialization (YESSS!) Summit, the exercise physiology pre-conference, and first Regenerative Medicine Symposium. The YESSS summit was a full day designed to review the current scientific knowledge related to youth sport specialization and develop a research roadmap to drive future research efforts based on existing evidence and knowledge gaps. Kudos to the AMSSM Leadership of the Summit, Jim Griffith, Stephanie Kliethermes, Col. Anthony Beutler and Drs. Daniel Herman, Neeru Jayanthi, and Steve Marshall. The Regenerative medicine summit, led by Dr Ken Mautner, provided evidence based research presentations on all aspects of this type of treatment modality.

Jordyn Wieber, one of the Keynote Speakers at AMSSM 2019, and UCLA Gymnastics Coach

The highlight of the first dull day of the conference on Saturday had to be Dr Jeffrey Tanji addressing the Larry Nassar revelations and Jordyn Wieber and her emotionally moving talk. AMSSMs members provided standing ovations for both of these powerful talks.

Sunday brought a return of the 5K fun run with nearly 200 participants and wonderful talks revolving around American Football, technological leaps in sports medicine, and many other topics, including the Hough memorial Talk by Dr Kim Harmon on Concussion Updates.

Monday, after a great day of learning including research podium presentations, and a powerful talk from Brian Fletcher on perspectives on thriving after childhood cancer, the AMSSM Foundation Party at the NASA Johnson Space Center commenced. We hopped in buses for the 30-40 minute drive and arrived for an evening of fun!

Tuesday brought the Sports Medicine Fellowship Fair and continued great talks, including a special session on Aerospace Medicine with the Presidential Keynote provided by aerospace medicine physician Dr Michael Berry!

There were 2 more fantastic sessions in Wednesday, including one by Lisa Fenn Mahooti highlighting the importance of community change with a direct personal involvement.

Special mention of Dr Jason Matusak and his planning committee for an outstanding 2019 annual meeting. We can’t wait for 2020 in Atlanta April 24th-29th!

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Two special notes

  1. Regarding #AMSSM2020 (or will it be #AMSSM20 ?) — Dr. Zaremski is the chair of the planning committee for this event, and we’re sure Atlanta will be another in a long-line of excellent AMSSM conferences.
  2. And AMSSM is often where CJSM holds its annual Editorial Board meeting.  This year

    Cheers! From members of the CJSM Editorial Board

    2019 we gathered on the Tuesday evening for a couple of hours of food, drink, and thought over how to make CJSM a better resource for our readers.  The fruits of this meeting will be seen in future offerings we have coming your way!!!  In the meantime, please accept your virtual champagne toast to you, our readers around the globe!

Filed under General Interest Tagged with

5 Questions with Dr. Chad Asplund — President of the AMSSM

April 8, 2019 by Leave a comment

Dr. Chad Asplund, President of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (2018 – 2019)

The 2019 annual meeting of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) commences in Houston April 12 and ends April 17.  Like many of hundreds of sport and exercise medicine (SEM) specialists around the world we’ve been looking forward to the event for months.

This meeting represents one of the high points in our field of SEM, a venue for sharing much of the most current, relevant, evidence-based information in our field.  And, as for most such meetings of a medical society, it also represents something of a shareholder meeting for AMSSM members (I happen to be one, as are many of the members of CJSM’s editorial board):  it’s a time for the society to gather and, perhaps change bylaws, discuss finances, introduce new executive and board members, and say good-bye and thank you to the service given by those individuals who are stepping down from such posts.

One of those individuals in any society is the president, the head dude/dudette. We have traditionally touched bases with the outgoing AMSSM president prior to the annual meeting, and this year we had the chance to catch up with Chad Asplund MD, MPH on the ‘year that was’ for AMSSM.

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1. CJSM: We have to begin by asking you about your year as President of the AMSSM. What were your major challenges this year?  What were your high points?

Dr. Asplund (CA): The high points of the year were the finalization of the marketing and branding strategy with a new logo, member seal and messaging.  It was also great to meet and to hear from so many of our members throughout the year.  It was a humbling, but rewarding term as president and I am honored to have been selected.  There were no major challenges, other than media requests regarding the USA Gymnastics (Larry Nassar) and Ohio State (Richard Strauss) cases and the Maryland incident involving the death of Jordan McNair.

2. CJSM: Can you tell the readers a bit about your ‘day job’ – what do you do when you are not busy with AMSSM duties? Read more of this post

Filed under Basic Sciences in SEM, General Interest Tagged with

Medicine Through Movement — The CJSM Podcast with Dr. Jane Thornton

April 3, 2019 by 1 Comment

Jane Thornton, MD, PhD, of CASEM and the University of Western Ontario, Fowler Kennedy Sports Clinic. Twitter: @JaneSThornton

One of CJSM’s closest relationships is with our partner society the Canadian Academy of Sport and Exercise Medicine (CASEM).  After all, CASEM was the founding society for the ‘Canadian Journal of Sport Medicine’ (now the Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine).  We keep close tabs on what CASEM is doing because it’s sure to be of importance to both us and the world of SEM.

And so we’re excited to announce that just a few days from now — April 6 — CASEM will be hosting in Ottawa a special conference.  “Medicine Through Movement:  How Physical Activity is Changing Health Care.”

April 6 is, not coincidentally, World Physical Activity Day. The World Health Organization (WHO) named April 6 World Physical Activity Day in 2002 as part of in initiative to address the world-wide pandemic of physical activity.  We in primary care SEM are the troops on the ‘front lines’ waging battle against this pandemic.  We are always looking for effective tools to stem the tide.

One of the organizers of the Ottawa conference, and an expert in the field of ‘medicine through movement,’ is Dr. Jane Thornton, a clinician and researcher who most recently published in the pages of CJSM as the lead author of the CASEM position statement on the ‘physical activity prescription.‘  Always game to see research translated into practical action in the clinic and community, Dr. Thornton was a gracious guest on these blog pages three years ago.

We’re delighted to have her as CJSM’s guest again, and on this occasion she was able to sit down with us for a podcast conversation.  No small feat in her very busy life, I can assure you!

In preparation for the conference, or in its aftermath, take a listen to our conversation. Dr. Thornton weighs in on the highlights of the event, her research into the area of physical activity interventions, and tells us all about one of her heroes.  She also shares her thoughts on ‘movement hacks’ — interventions that work for patients, and can be integrated into the busy, time-challenged clinics in which, I am sure, we all work.

If you’re not able to get to Ottawa, have a listen and by all means follow Dr. Thornton and the hashtag #MTM2019 on Twitter for the breaking information from that conference.

And before we forget, make sure to highlight May 16 – 18 2019 and April 29 – May 2 2020 on your calendars; these are the dates of the 2019 CASEM (Vancouver) and 2020 CASEM (Banff, Alberta) annual symposia. You won’t want to miss these, perhaps especially the 2020 event, when CASEM celebrates its 50th anniversary!

In the meantime, what are you waiting for?  Take a listen on iTunes or on our journal webpage to Dr. Jane Thornton on the newest CJSM podcast!

Filed under CJSM Podcasts, General Interest, Medical Conferences, Patient Education, Physical activity interventions, Public Health in Sports and Exercise Medicine Tagged with , , , ,

Making a Good Thing Better — The Healthy Sport Index & Youth Sports

March 4, 2019 by

I have the great privilege of taking care of many outstanding young athletes in my sports medicine clinics

Youth sports is of special interest to me — I practice pediatric sports medicine at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and perhaps 90% or more of the patients I see regularly participate in youth sports.

The topic is of great interest to this journal as well:  for example, CJSM will publish later this year a themed issue on topics in youth sports medicine, guest edited by my friend and colleague, pediatrician Alison Brooks M.D. of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM).

Youth sports has long been recognized as a valuable activity for the individuals and families who choose to participate.  An abundance of evidence points to the health benefits — physical, mental, academic — that can be achieved by children and adolescents engaging in sports.

There has been growing concern over the last decade or two (or three), however, of the potential and possibly growing risks of youth sports.  The concerns range from early youth sports specialization and overuse injuries to early professionalism. The concerns include the youth sports culture itself – a culture manifest in nightmare form by the myriad incidents of abuse seen in USA Gymnastics or Swimming.

On April 12 2019, the AMSSM will be hosting a pre-conference prior to their annual meeting, entitled the Youth Early Sports Specialization Summit (YESSS!)   Among many of the subjects up for discussion is the “Healthy Sport Index (HSI),” an instrument developed by the Aspen Institute’s Project Play initiative and made public in October 2018. The HSI was designed to help kids and families answer the important question:  what sport is right for my child?  As a physician caring for thousands of these athletes a year, I can’t tell you how often I’m posed that question.  Now there is a tool to help.

One of the physicians who served on the Advisory Group for the development of the HSI was Michele LaBotz, M.D. She is a pediatrician and sports medicine physician in a large multi-specialty group in southern Maine, who serves on the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness (COSMF) and is a member of the AMSSM.  She kindly volunteered to give an overview on the HSI for the CJSM blog, and we’re delighted we can share her thoughts in the run up to YESSS!

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HEALTHY SPORT INDEX:  A UNIQUE TOOL FOR YOUTH SPORTS

Michele LaBotz MD FAAP

As health care providers, we rightfully emphasize safety and injury risk when discussing sport participation in young athletes.  We recognize the potential risks of sports that are contact vs. non-contact, or those that are high impact vs. low impact.   But, sport selection and participation is about more than just injury risk, and there is under-recognition that different sports exert a variety of influences on young athletes.  The Healthy Sport Index (HSI) presents this information in an appealing format and is a valuable resource for families and other stakeholders when considering sport-related issues in children and adolescents

HSI aggregates evidence-based data on physical activity, psychosocial effects, and safety on the 10 most popular high school sports for boys and girls in the U.S. Read more of this post

Filed under Safeguarding in Sport, Youth Sport Tagged with , , , ,

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