The AMSSM Position Statement on Conducting the PPE During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic

December 15, 2020 by

Dr. Alex B. Diamond, co-author of the recent AMSSM guidance statement on administering the PPE during the COVID pandemic

If you’re like us, we are ready to turn the page on 2020!

Literally and figuratively in CJSM’s case.

We’ve decided to push out the January 2021 issue early to get a start on the New Year!  And we’ve got our first podcast of the, ahem, ‘New Year’ to go along with it.

There are many submissions in this edition to highlight, but today I wanted to bring to the attention of the blog readers and podcast listeners one in particular.

CJSM’s partner society, the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) convened a writing group early in 2020 to give guidance to clinicians in conducting the pre-participation examination (PPE) during the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic.  The result is a manuscript entitled, “Interim Guidance on the Preparticipation Physical Examination for Athletes During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic.”

The pandemic has touched all aspects of our field, and the PPE poses some new challenges that clinicians must address while the SARS virus holds sway.

Co-chair of the AMSSM committee and co-author of the AMSSM statement, Alex B. Diamond, D.O., M.P.H. is our guest on the first podcast of the new year.  The other co-chair was Dusty Narducci, M.D. Drs. Diamond and Narducci headed an illustrious team of authors, many whose names will be recognizable to those in the world of sports medicine (special shout out to two of our CJSM editors on the panel: Dr. William Roberts and Dr. Jason Zaremski).

Dr. Diamond is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Orthopaedics and Pediatrics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and among many other positions is also the team physician for several Nashville- area high schools, Vanderbilt University (NCAA D1) and the Nashville Predators of the NHL.

In our conversation we do a deep dive on conducting the PPE during the pandemic.  We cover issues such as venue (medical home vs. mass event), the risk of myocarditis in infected individuals, and the potential barriers to sport access created by the PPE.

Go to the statement, which is now freely available in our January 2021 issue. And go to iTunes to check out this episode and subscribe to all of our podcasts, or go to the journal’s main website to access the podcast and other CJSM media.

Filed under CJSM Podcasts, General Interest, Youth Sport Tagged with

The CJSM podcast on the pediatric athlete — Guest Editor Dr. M. Alison Brooks

September 13, 2019 by

Dr. Alison Brooks, in a rare moment of repose — enjoying the sights from Table Mountain, Cape Town RSA

We have just published our September 2019 issue.  It is a special thematic issue focused on the pediatric and adolescent athlete, and we are grateful to Guest Editor Alison Brooks M.D., M.P.H. for the outstanding work she has done nurturing this issue from cradle to…..adulthood.

It’s been a long process watching this issue proceed from crawling to toddling to, now, standing on it’s own two feet marching off into the world!

Want to know more about pediatric sport specialization, concussion, nutrition, safe play?  Want to know more about the rigors and work involved with a guest editorship?  It’s time then to queue up your smart phones and listen to our newest podcast, where Dr. Brooks makes her debut as our guest.

I have known Dr. Brooks for several years and consider her a friend.  As a friend as well as a professional colleague, I am duly impressed with her career.  And you should be, too. An Assoc. Professor on the tenure track at the University of Wisconsin, she has published widely and can be found in the pages of CJSM as well as many other journals. A former member of the AMSSM’s Board of Directors, Dr. Brooks continues to influence youth athletic policy with her work for the AAP’s Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness.  And I know her best as the person I accompanied on the AMSSM’s Travelling Fellowship in South Africa in 2015.

Spend 20 minutes finding out more about the medical challenges facing our young athletes and learning a bit more about Dr. Brooks.  Go to our podcasts now at iTunes or our journal’s main web page.

Filed under CJSM Podcasts, Youth Sport 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 , , , ,

The surf was up at ACSEP 2017

February 17, 2017 by

koala

Let the koalas sleep — you won’t be doing much of that if you attend an ACSEP conference

One of the highlights of my 2016 was my first visit to the Australasian College of Sport and Exercise Physicians (ACSEP) annual meeting.  I wrote about the experience in several of these CJSM blog posts.

ACSEP is one of CJSM’s affiliated societies, and we greatly value our relationship with the college.  Two of our Associate Editors are members of the college: Hamish Osborne (NZ) and Steve Reid (AUS).

On a personal note, I also greatly valued the experience of attending the meeting. The venue (Surfer’s Paradise) was stunning — just the ticket for someone muddling through a Northern Hemisphere winter.  And the proceedings themselves — well, they were little short of perfect.  From the educational sessions to the food and social events — first class, all the way.

ACSEP 2016 was, without a doubt, one of the best sports medicine conferences I have ever attended.

I couldn’t make the 2017 edition, which also took place in Surfer’s Paradise. What was my misfortune turned out to have a pleasant side-effect, as Dr. Osborne was in attendance, and he graciously penned this letter giving an overview of the proceedings:

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ACSEP has been and gone and my promised blog post is now a thank you to all those who attended clearly our biggest but also our best-ever annual scientific conference. I arrived early, actually before most registrars as it turned out, to meet and greet and enjoy the excellent presentations from our new intake of trainees. The bar is going up and up. Looking forward to increasing research contributions from this group as they come through.

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Hi hon, really busy at the ACSEP meeting

The first afternoon of the conference was up there with perhaps the best series of 4 keynotes on SEM that I have ever heard. Read more of this post

Filed under General Interest, Medical Conferences Tagged with , ,

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