5 Questions with Christian Baumgart

April 28, 2015 by

Baumgart, Christian

Christian Baumgart, lead author of new study, Pubished Ahead of Print

It’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to ask a guest ‘5 questions,’ a recurring feature of this blog.  Our May issue is still a few days from being published…..too soon for guests!  And so I thought it was time to give readers a taste of our ‘Published Online First’ feature.

Once a manuscript has passed CJSM’s rigorous peer review process, ‘made the grade’ and been accepted, it is still a few months away from being published in print.  Like many journals, we have a healthy backlog of manuscripts which have been accepted but await publication.

But it’s not too soon for the authors to break out the champagne, because the article can be fully formatted and made available electronically prior to print–fully searchable in PubMed, prime time for the C.V.

One such study came to us from researchers in the Department of Movement Science at the University of Wuppertal in Germany: Effects of Static Stretching and Playing Soccer on Knee Laxity.  This is a randomized clinical trial looking at the effects of static stretching and playing soccer on anterior tibial translation.  I emailed the lead author, Christian Baumgart, and he was more than happy to join us on funf fragen…er, five questions!

Danke Christian!  I hope to meet you some day in Germany.

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1) CJSM: What would you say was the most notable finding in your study?

CB: Previous studies have shown that different exercises lead to an increase in the sagittal knee laxity. The surprising finding of our study was that static stretching also increases the sagittal knee laxity and even to a greater extent than playing soccer. From a biomechanical point of view this fact seems to be logical, because in healthy athletes the joint mobility during stretching is limited primarily by ligaments and capsules. Subsequently, these connective tissues were short-termed plastic deformed. It is unclear whether the connective tissues adapts structurally, if the external load is applied long-term.

2) CJSM: Do you think the statistically significant increases in anterior tibial translation (ATT) you found both in static stretching and playing football (soccer) are clinically significant? Read more of this post

Filed under Basic Sciences in SEM, General Interest, Injury Prevention Tagged with , ,

‘Think so vs. Know so’: Dr. Jonathan Finnoff on Sports Ultrasound

April 25, 2015 by

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Dr. Jonathan Finnoff delivering Grand Rounds in Columbus, Ohio

Earlier this week I was injecting an ankle:  was I in the joint or not?  I ‘think so’–but with an ultrasound I would ‘know so.’ Perhaps that is all I really need to say in this blog post on sports ultrasound!

Readers of the journal and this blog will be familiar with the Mayo Clinic’s Jonathan Finnoff.  Dr. Finnoff has made substantial contributions to the field of sports ultrasound and most recently was the lead author on a highly cited review of this modality.  I had the chance to interview him and profile this work, an American Medical Society for Sports Medicine position statement, in our December 2014 podcast featuring him.

Dr. Finnoff headed a highly regarded sports ultrasound program at the recent 2015 AMSSM conference in Florida.  I arrived a day late for that, and so could not attend.  Not only did I want to go to that program for its educational value, I wanted to meet the man himself!  As I have written, it is both a wondrous and strange attribute of the modern world to become so engaged with someone on Twitter, or Skype, and yet never meet them in person.

I am happy to say my disappointment was short-lived as the busy doctor was able to come visit Columbus, Ohio yesterday.  I was able to catch the sports medicine grand rounds he delivered at Ohio State and get to shake, at last, the hand that holds the transducer.

Jonathan:  it was good to finally meet you!

If you have never had the chance to hear him speak, make sure you avail yourself of the next opportunity [or listen to the podcast :)]  In the mean time, I wanted to share some of what I came away with from the talk. Read more of this post

Filed under General Interest Tagged with , ,

#AMSSM15: Winding down in sunny Florida

April 18, 2015 by 1 Comment

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Drs. Bill Meehan of Boston Children’s and Frank Wang, Team Doc of Harvard: bringing a little Boston to Florida at #AMSSM15 (We approve of the ‘Stanley Cup’ beard Dr. Meehan)

As I wrap up my stay in Hollywood, Florida for the 24th meeting of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM), it’s a strange realization I come to now sitting down to write a blog post:  how can four days pass so quickly?

One answer to that question:  if the days are packed full of interesting activities.

I can only attempt in this post to survey in brief just what the agenda has been.  That is my self-appointed task, in any case, as I indulge in the last few minutes of the sultry, southern Florida life before I jump a plane home.

I was struck  by just how strong the AMSSM leadership is as I sat through the organization’s ‘State of the Union’ address, delivered co-jointly by outgoing president Chris Madden and incoming president Jon Divine.  I am a member of AMSSM as well as the Emerging Media Editor of CJSM, and so I had a doubly strong interest in the talk.

I was struck, as well, by how strong the organization’s staff is–those folks have done a fabulous job organizing this meeting for what is now approaching almost 2o00 physicians!

The AMSSM is the largest primary care sports physician organization in the world.  It is one we are proud to represent as its official journal; one we are proud to include among our group of partner societies which span the globe (which include CASEM, ACSP, and the AOASM).  Both Drs. Madden and Divine delivered inspiring speeches, ones devoted at heart to a recognition that an organization represents the sum of its parts:  we imperfect human beings who, in this organization’s case, are working hard to define the best practices of primary care sports medicine.

I will hold close for some time, I hope, the words of the parting president of AMSSM, Dr. Madden, who used a quotation attributed to Gandhi:  “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Read more of this post

Filed under General Interest Tagged with ,

Let us now praise social media: #AMSSM15

April 15, 2015 by 2 Comments

pam and me

With a good friend….whom I just happened to meet in person today! Tekia Thompson, AMSSM

Much can be written–and has been written–about the perverse behaviors and relationships that can form around social media. Anyone who has spent time blogging or tweeting can tell you about being verbally blasted by trolls.

But I’m here to write about, briefly, the greatness of social media:  the way it can make the world flat, to borrow a concept of Thomas Friedman’s.

Time differences and geography need not be a barrier to forging powerful relationships, and I’m reminded of that strongly today.

It is the first day of the annual meeting of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, and it’s already shaped up to be a great one.  I just wrapped up a faculty development session and am soon to sit down and hear some of the world’s experts on football medicine (that’s soccer to us Yanks).

When I was checking in, the first person I wanted to meet was @TheAMSSM, a.k.a. @PamTekaDegraw…or, rather, Tekia Thompson, the communications manager and one member of the fabulous staff of the AMSSM. I’ve communicated with Pam for months via email at times, but mostly via direct message on Twitter; we’ve chatted about a variety of issues relating to AMSSM and CJSM. I feel as if I have come to know her.  Nothing can replace the excitement of finally meeting her first hand; but as I reflect on how we’ve become colleagues and friends, I realize the warmth of our greeting today was informed by a true sense of a relationship already formed…..thanks to Twitter.

The same situation applies to my growing collaborations with South Africa’s Jon Patricios, as I wrote in one of my more recent blog posts. We’ve skyped, and emailed, and tweeted; I’ve conducted a podcast interview with him.  We’ve worked on one talk and will do so with another at the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) in a month.  I’ll see him here in Florida (he is the South African travelling fellow to AMSSM) and I’ll get to see him later this year in South Africa (I’ll be one of two travelling fellows to SASMA).  But for all of this, I may have met Jon I think physically 2 or 3 times–the depth of our relationship owes to the ‘flatness’ of the virtual world.

The subject of that ACSM talk is the power of social media for sports medicine clinicians, and if you’re in San Diego for the conference be sure to hear from Jon, AMSSM member @MizzouSportsDoc (er, Aaron Gray, M.D.) and me about why a tool like Twitter should belong next to your goniometer.

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Beautiful Hollywood, Florida

So–here’s to social media and it’s power to influence for the better our profession of sports medicine! Make sure to follow the hashtag #AMSSM15 this week to stay on top of the proceedings even if you are not physically here in Hollywood, Florida. And take a look at our #ReturnToPlay collection, which we’ve made free until the end of the month to celebrate the theme of #AMSSM15

Cheers, and we (that is @CJSMonline) hope 2 c u on SoMe!

 

 

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