Live from Australia–Coming Soon!

Getting my gear ready for the ACSP 2016 Conference

I’m busily preparing for my journey to Surfer’s Paradise, Queensland, Australia, where the Australasian College of Sports Physicians (ACSP) will have its Annual Scientific Conference 12 February – 16 February.  I’ve been anticipating this conference for some time, in large part for the unique opportunity it presents to connect face-to-face with valued members of one of our affiliated societies, the ACSP.

The Australian and New Zealand sport medicine communities typically punch well above their weight, making a profound impact on the international scene.  Witness one of our more recent–and already well-read, studies, published ‘on-line first’:  the ACSP Position Statement on Mesenchymal Stem/Stromal Cell Therapies in Sport and Exercise Medicine.   The lead author of this paper is Hamish Osborne of the University of Otago; Dr. Osborne is also one of the CJSM Associate Editors, and so I get to catch up with him a couple of times a year via phone conferencing….and if I’m lucky, I see him for an Editorial Board dinner once every couple of years (last time was in Quebec, at the Canadian Academy of Sport and Exercise Medicine (CASEM) meeting held jointly with FIMS).  Dr. Osborne and I already have planned to sit down and record a podcast focused on the stem cell paper, and so look for that to come out in early March — a few short weeks from now!

Also recently published on line first on the CJSM web site is an article on DHEA treatment of female athletes with adrenal insufficiency by Australian David Handelsman and New Zealand’s eminent David Gerrard–I’m hoping to see these gentleman in Surfer’s Paradise!

Dr. Osborne, I see,  is on the panel of speakers for the ACSP conference, as are a host of other great speakers.  I see Roald Bahr, Jill Cook and past president of the ACSM Steven Blair all on the lineup.  I look forward to their talks.  And I look forward to our Editor-in-chief, Chris Hughes, delivering a web broadcast from across the globe on “How to get Published,” a session he will reprise live on a visit to the USA to attend the American Medical Society of Sports Medicine (AMSSM) annual conference in April.  As some of you may know, Dr. Hughes is very busy these days with both his Editorial work and his head team physician work for Chelsea F.C.  It’s hard for him to disengage in the middle of the season–so he’s staying back in London while delivering his web talk while I….well, let’s just say when I’m not speaking or engaged in the conference, I’ll be enjoying the beer, sun and surf of Australia for him.  Cheers Chris!

My talk will be focused on youth sport, with an American perspective.  I plan to post that talk on this blog post after I have given it, and I will most certainly be blogging and tweeting from Down Under.  See you back here on these pages, and on social media, soon–now I’m off to my 18+ hour flight.