Paralympics, Sochi 2014, ACSM and more!

June 25, 2013 by 1 Comment

It’s been almost a month since the ACSM 2013 meeting in Indianapolis wrapped, but it’s the gift that keeps on giving for me.

Meetings like those of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM), or the Canadian Society for Sports and Exercise Medicine (CASEM)–all partner societies with the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine (CJSM)–are such a pleasure because a sports medicine clinician like myself can interact with clinician researchers from across the globe.

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Michael Phelps better watch his back: My good friend and Paralympic Swimmer, Rayne McCann and her haul of medals

At both the ACSM meeting and the AMSSM meeting in San Diego I saw my friend and fellow CJSM editor, Connie LeBrun, M.D., from the University of Alberta.  I heard she chaired a wonderful session on the Paralympics at ACSM, one I could not attend because there was a concurrent session that took me away (such are the ‘downsides’ of these meetings–there is usually too much to fit in!)

What could I do, but beg Connie to pen a guest blog for me so I could learn more about her session at ACSM.  Little did I know, I could also live vicariously her jet-set life:  catching up with her between Indianapolis, Calgary, Russia, and all points between (I’m beginning to wonder if she’s involved in the Edward Snowden affair).  It has been hard to track her down!  But worth it.

And so I present the guest blog from my colleague, Connie Lebrun, M.D.

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London 2012: Wenlock? Or Mandeville?

Can’t believe how fast the time has flown since the recent ACSM Annual Meeting in Indianapolis! A huge highlight for me, was chairing the Special Event submitted by the Olympic/Paralympic Sports Medicine Issues (OPSMI) Committee, of which I am a member. It was entitled: “London 2012: A Look Back at the Sports Medicine and Sport Science Issues of the Olympics and Paralympics.”

We had a stellar cast of speakers, beginning with David Epstein, a brilliant young “investigative journalist” for Sports Illustrated, who has won many awards for his science writing. He has produced innumerable cover stories for SI, on a variety of topical and controversial sports issues, including the piece that broke the news that Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez had used steroids.

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Filed under Elite sport, General Interest, Paralympics and Disability Sport Tagged with , , ,

There’s an App for that 3.0

June 22, 2013 by

The summer solstice (winter for my friends in the antipodes) occurred yesterday, and the languor of that season is upon us.  Not to mention it’s the weekend!

I will brief this morning.

If you haven’t had a chance to see our recent posts about apps for clinical use in sports medicine, I’d encourage you to check out ‘versions’ 1.0 and 2.0 and let me know what you think on twitter @cjsmonline or in the comments section of this post.  Or check some older posts on patient education apps here and here.

And I wanted to encourage readers to take the CJSM polls, available on this blog or on the main journal web page.

We’ve reformatted the main journal web page so that the poll is on the upper right in a viewer’s field of vision.  The current poll will also start appearing on this blog page.  I am eager to get more feedback on clinical sports medicine issues from the readership.  I plan over time to use the polls at times to ‘push’ the content we might discuss on this page:  that is, polls can help determine what are some of the most interesting, maybe even controversial, topics to talk about in sports medicine.

I also am eager to use the polls to highlight the powerful, original research that is published every other month in CJSM.

So…..before you climb into your hammock, or hunker down by the fireplace if you’re in NZ, click one of the radio buttons above.  Thanks as ever for participating and reading, and we’ll see you in the blogosphere next week.

6/26/13 update:

And did you know there are proper ways to cite social media (e.g. twitter posts, blog posts, etc.) in medical journals?  iMedical apps told me so!

Filed under CJSM Polls, General Interest Tagged with

Exercise Deficit Disorder in Youth: Thinking Outside The Sandbox

June 19, 2013 by 19 Comments

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Avery Faigenbaum, Ed.D, FACSM: Jersey boy energizes the crowd

As a pediatric sports medicine specialist, I typically spend my days ministering to the maladies of the active child or adolescent; but as a public health advocate, I worry more about the other end of the spectrum:  the growing (pun intended), global pandemic of childhood underactivity and obesity.

The global problem of underactivity in youth is being investigated by many people.  One of the leaders in this field is a Jersey boy; no, not Jon Bon Jovi…… I have been a big fan of Dr. Avery Faigenbaum, from the College of New Jersey, for some time.  From his work investigating the safety of resistance training in children to his new focus on “Exercise Deficit Disorder” (EDD), his work has been an inspiration to me.

Last summer, I had the pleasure of working with him here in Columbus, Ohio, and we even got to record a session of Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s “Pediacast” where we discussed the problem of EDD.  This summer, I got to catch up with Dr. Faigenbaum at the American College of Sports Medicine meeting in Indianapolis.   Though he could probably bench press three of me, I successfully arm-wrestled him into doing a guest blog.  Just in time:  Dr. Faigenbaum is heading to Argentina in July as a guest professor.

And so before he can run away, it is with great pleasure that I present to the readership Dr. Faigenbaum’s blog post:  “Exercise Deficit Disorder in Youth:  Thinking Outside the Sandbox.”

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The pervasive reach of physical inactivity has now spread worldwide and some authors have appropriately described this issue as a “pandemic” (4). Levels of physical activity among modern-day youth are down while time spent watching television and surfing the Internet are up. Researchers from Canada recently assigned a letter grade of D- to physical activity levels in 5- to 17-year olds (1) and findings from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance survey indicate that one-third of high school students in the United States played video or computer games for 3 or more hours on an average school day (5). The decline and disinterest in physical activity appears to emerge early in life, and by the time students enter high school their sedentary habits are difficult to break. As a professor of pediatric exercise science, I am deeply concerned that regular physical activity has become a neglected dimension of health that has yet to garner the medical power and political clout of other pediatric and adolescent health issues such as cigarette smoking or super-sized beverages.

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Filed under Exercise Medicine, General Interest, Public Health in Sports and Exercise Medicine, Youth Sport Tagged with

There’s an App for that 2.0

June 15, 2013 by 1 Comment

Picking up where I left off on my last blog post, I wanted to discuss some more of the clinical sports medicine apps I use, with a focus on the apps that have made it on to my smart phone.  As I had mentioned previously, all the apps I discuss are freely available; do not represent an endorsement by CJSM; and are discussed by me without any vested conflict of interest.

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The CJSM iPad app: if you have an iPad, you need this app!

Except for this recommendation!!!  Ironically, the one app that is not on my smart phone, but rather my electronic tablet, is the CJSM journal app.  And yes, I have a vested interest in this, because I’m an Associate Editor of the Journal.  In truth, it is a great resource for accessing the journal contents when on the run.  If you have a tablet, I’d heartily recommend picking up the app here.  Also, get a more in depth appreciation for the app at the CJSM blog post authored by my predecessor (now Executive Editor of the Journal), the illustrious Christopher Hughes, on of the team physicians for Chelsea F.C.

Now, returning to the issue of apps for the smart phone that I use in my clinic, on the sidelines, and in the training room, I need to tell you about my new favorite: Ubersense, a video analysis app primarily produced for coaches, I think, but one I have found invaluable for doing in office gait analysis.  Read more of this post

Filed under General Interest, Technology in Sports Medicine Tagged with

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