Dr. Hamish Kerr joins us on “5 Questions with CJSM”

August 3, 2014 by

The Commonwealth Games in Glasgow are having their closing ceremony today.  Among the many sports that have been declared a success in these games is Rugby 7’s, which saw South Africa beat the New Zealand All Blacks for rugby gold.

Soon, many of these same athletes will begin tramping around the globe:   the International Rugby Board (IRB) HSBC Sevens World Series begins in Australia in October. As the series circumnavigates the globe, it will make stops from Dubai to Las Vegas, and points in between, before it wraps up in May 2015 in England (which, by the way, will host the Rugby World Cup in 2015).

And by that time, we’ll be just about a year from Rugby 7’s making its debut as an Olympic Sport in Rio.

Yes, I would say, rugby is in ascendancy as a sport right now both globally and domestically.   Here in America, for instance, youth rugby is growing at an astounding rate.  We publish frequently on the sport in our journal, and I have a particular fondness for the sport having spent some of my adult life in southern Africa and in New Zealand, where it is, arguably, religion.

HK at Twickenham

Dr. Hamish Kerr at Twickenham Satidum, home of England Rugby

One of my colleagues whom I hold in great esteem, Dr. Hamish Kerr, is intimately involved with rugby.  I have been after him for a while to a guest post on our “5 Questions with CJSM” format.  It is appropriate that we have him guesting today, as the Glasgow games wrap up……

Dr. Kerr finished medical school in Glasgow in 1998 and moved to Albany, NY in 1999 for his combined Med/Peds residency. He spent another 18 months back in Scotland in 2004 prior to starting his sports fellowship in Boston in 2005, where he worked under Dr. Lyle Micheli, who, among his multiple other lifetime honors, was recently inducted into the USA Rugby Sports Medicine Hall of Fame.

Before I took off for a summer holiday, I asked Dr. Kerr to put pen to paper and answer the following questions.

 

________________________________

 

1) CJSM: You wear a lot of hats:  practicing clinician, educator, team physician.  Can you give us a run down of your various commitments.

 HK: I am principally the sports medicine fellowship director for Albany Medical College. We have a fellow, residents and medical students rotating with us year round. I have 5 faculty who see a mix of musculoskeletal medicine and sports concussion patients. I practice in two sites, one with Capital Region Orthopedics and another academic office site where we see most of the sports concussions and have a multidisciplinary clinic. We have MSK ultrasound, ImPACT, and treadmill testing available.

My 2nd role is as head team physician at Siena College. We provide field side cover for men’s and women’s soccer and basketball , plus men’s lacrosse. Siena men’s basketball made the NCAA 3 tournaments in consecutive years 2008-2010 and will host the MAAC tournament in 2015.

USA Rugby I have been working with for 4-5 years. It is a voluntary position, but very enjoyable. I have covered the men’s national team for the 15-game and the 7’s-game as a team physician both on home soil and abroad, including the UK, Mexico (Pan Am Games 2011) and Moscow (IRB Sevens Rugby World Cup 2013). I also Chair the Medical & Risk Committee and serve as a member of the Rugby Committee helping administer the game in the USA from a medical perspective. Read more of this post

Filed under Elite sport, General Interest Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Q: What is a MOOC?

July 30, 2014 by

A:  A “Massive Open On-line Course.”

Have you ever taken one?

I’m enrolled in one right now:  “Exercise Physiology:  Understanding the Athlete Within,”   taught by Professor Mark Hargreaves from the University of Melbourne.  I think it is the fourth MOOC I’ve ever taken, and it is the first one that has any direct relation to my profession.  The course began last week, and I was able to do most of my lecture viewing this past weekend.  While my kids are enjoying their summer vacation at an overnight camp, I’m back in school!

Before I get much further, I suppose I should spend a moment describing, at least in my terms, what a MOOC is, most especially for those folks that ticked “No” in the poll above.

Massive Open On-line Courses (MOOCs) have been around now for a few years.  I believe there are several providers, the largest ones being Coursera and edX.   One can better understand the nature of a MOOC by deconstructing the phrase itself:  MOOCs are typically ‘massive’ (they have large enrollments);  ‘open’ (they are typically free, and enrolling is a matter of  simply ‘signing up’); ‘on line’  (you’ll need internet access); courses (they are educational sessions which last for several weeks, and include syllabi, lectures, assignments).

edX describes itself on its twitter home page thus: “A global community committed to bringing quality education to everyone across the globe through an innovative MOOC platform–founded by Harvard and MIT.” Read more of this post

Filed under CJSM Polls, Exercise Science, General Interest Tagged with , , ,

CJSM Podcast 4: Concussions and the World Cup

July 24, 2014 by

jsm-podcast-bg-1In this podcast we had the chance to talk with physicians Cindy Chang and Matthew Gammons about the concussion incidents in the recent FIFA World Cup.  Drs. Chang and Gammons are distinguished members of one of our affiliated societies, the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine:  Dr. Chang is a past president and Dr. Gammons is a current vice-president of the organization.

Our Concussion Collection on our main web page contains several valuable research studies on the subject of concussion, and several of the articles are free.  The collection also includes the important Zurich Consensus Guidelines from 2012, which is one of the subjects up for discussion in the podcast.

At CJSM, we employ various media to ‘spread the word.’  You can get a quick taste of what the Zurich guidelines are about by watching our video of past Editor-in-Chief Willem Meeuwisse.  And all of our podcasts can be found here.

Enjoy this, our fourth one,  and let us know what you think!

Filed under CJSM Podcasts, Concussion in Sport, Elite sport, General Interest, Youth Sport Tagged with , , ,

Concussion management in professional soccer: an opinion piece

July 21, 2014 by

photo (13)

Dr. Luis Rodriguez, demonstrating his skills.

The 2014 World Cup is getting smaller in the rear-view mirror day by day, and the sporting world’s collective attention is turning to other events.  The Commonwealth Games is about to open in Glasgow; the 2016 Olympics are not far off and will, of course, occur in Brazil (Rio); and another World Cup is coming around the corner:  in a little more than a year the Rugby World Cup will kick off in England.

And for the Americans in the on-line crowd, there is the little matter of NFL preseason training camps opening at the end of this week; my beloved Packers start up this Saturday!

On the other hand, the discussion about the management of concussion at the Brazil World Cup is not diminishing.   From media like the Washington Post to social media such as Twitter–which, frankly, remains all ‘atwitter’ over the issue–the dissection of the events and the discussion of what to do next continues.  The New York Times has captured the ‘zeitgeist’ I think with its headline:  FIFA’s Dazed and Dated Attitude.

We have had several posts on this issue already.  I offer you yet another today.  I take part in a LISTSERV which includes members of one of our affiliated societies, the American Medical Society of Sports Medicine (AMSSM).  Last week, I joined in on a robust and wide-ranging discussion about issues of concussion management in soccer (apologies to some readers, since this on-line football discussion mostly involved Americans, the word that was kicked around was, indeed, soccer).  The LISTSERV discussion was so intriguing that I reached out to the participants and asked if anyone was interested in doing a guest post on this blog.  I got a volunteer!

Dr. Luis Rodriguez is an AMSSM member, a clinician and teacher, and an avid soccer player and fan.  He is the Assistant Program Director – UHS Wilson Memorial Hospital Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship Program, Johnson City, NY, and is a Clinical Assistant Professor at SUNY Upstate Medical University, Binghamton Campus.  He is, as well, the Team Physician for the Binghamton University Bearcats, the SUNY Broome Hornets, and the Davis College Falcons.

And he has graciously shared with us his opinions.  Thanks Dr. Rodriguez!
______________________________________

Concussion Management in Professional Soccer–Dr. Luis Rodriguez

According to the Nielsen company, an estimated 26.5 million people in the United States watched Germany’s extra-time win over Argentina in the final game of the FIFA World Cup on Sunday July 13, 2014. Being a huge soccer fan, I played my small part in making this the most watched soccer match in U.S. history, even though I was not rooting for anyone in particular. I also knew I was not the only Sports Medicine doctor watching of course, and this fact became pretty obvious early into the first half of an excellent soccer match (although I prefer the term “futbol” myself).

It was the 16th minute, German midfielder Christoph Kramer was fighting for possession deep into Argentinian territory and received what was surely an unintentional (and perhaps most importantly unexpected) hit to the left side of his head and face from the shoulder of defender Ezequiel Garay. Kramer went to the ground immediately, and the ball was put out of play by Germany after a brief delay. During this time, ESPN’s English commentators mentioned he had tried to get up but went back down. Germany’s medical personnel got to him when the game clock showed 17 minutes, 10 seconds and began evaluation. 30 seconds later he was given the famous “pat in the back” that all of those who cover sports as team physicians are probably familiar with as the universal sign for: “you’re ok, now get back in there!”.

The referee did not let Kramer back in immediately, as per official FIFA rules, he had to leave the pitch since medical personnel came in to provide care. I must say, he looked quite dazed and confused to me as he was making his slow walk around the pitch waiting for permission to come back into the match.

Read more of this post

Filed under Concussion in Sport, Elite sport, General Interest Tagged with , , , , , , ,

← Older posts

Newer posts →