#AMSSM in #NOLA

March 6, 2014 by

590px-New_Orleans_PD_1

New Orleands: site of the upcoming
American Medical Society for Sports Medicine
Annual Meeting

Seems like over most of North America Spring is coming slowly.  During Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans earlier this week, it didn’t break 50°F!

But it’s going to be 70° F this weekend in NOLA……and I suspect it will be warm and spring-like in a month, when the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) holds its annual meeting in the Crescent City (April 5 – 9).

I’m looking forward to Cafe du Monde coffee, beignets, po’boys, sazeracs, walks along the Mississippi and everything else New Orleans has to offer.  And I sure am looking forward to the meeting itself, for it looks to be a good one.

Every March here at CJSM we have the pleasant distinction of publishing the Research Presentation Abstracts and the Case Presentation Abstracts for the annual AMSSM meeting.  Those abstracts are now available for your review.  If you’re going to NOLA, you can see what’s in store!  If you’re staying at home, you can read about some of the interesting research that’s being done by our sports medicine colleagues around the world.

Follow @TheAMSSM and @cjsmonline on Twitter April 5 – April 9 to stay up-to-date on the happenings on the ground.  Scan your social media sites for #AMSSM14 tags.  There are likely to be some interesting Instagrams coming out of #NOLA with that tag!

And be ready to receive a blog post from the Crescent City; I’ll be sure to find the time (somewhere) to fit one in!

Filed under General Interest, Medical Conferences Tagged with ,

5 Questions with Dr. John DiFiori, AMSSM President

January 7, 2014 by 1 Comment

amssm overuse

Screen Shot of AMSSM
Infographic on
Youth Sport and Burnout

January represents the new year here at CJSM, as it does of course for all of you in the blogosphere.  But what really excites us is not the opportunity to set new year’s resolutions:  it’s  the new issue of the CJSM, and that’s what I want to share with you today.

There is a lot on offer in this issue, including studies exploring treatments of articular cartilage pathology, a study of functional ankle instability, and a journal club exploring the relative of benefits of PRP and ESWT on chronic patellar tendinopathy.

The lead study is a systematic review and position statement on the issue of youth sports, with an evidence-based  focus on the phenomena of overuse injuries.  This blog reviewed the statement in an earlier post.  It’s an important study, and we want to make sure as many people as possible get a chance to read it.

And so, we feel fortunate to have had the chance over the holidays to chat with the lead author of the paper, Dr. John DiFiori, and ask him ’5 questions’ about his recent work.

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1) CJSM: Dr. DiFiori, you are the lead author of the new American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) position statement on ’overuse injuries and burnout in youth sports.’  Can you tell us a bit about the genesis of this statement?  When was it first conceived?  How long did it take to go from initial conception to publication?  How did you gather together the group of experts who are authors on this statement?

JD: Given all of the issues currently surrounding youth sports, the AMSSM leadership felt that a position statement focusing on overuse injuries and burnout would be timely, and would help to address many of the concerns held by sports medicine professionals, as well parents, coaches, and the young athletes themselves. In late 2011, a nominating process was completed, and I was asked by AMSSM to lead this project. The six outstanding members of the writing group were identified through a similar process, based on their clinical expertise, and their record of educational and scholarly contributions in this area.

We began to develop the content areas and search strategy in early 2012. We endeavored to have the paper be as evidenced-based as possible. To this end, we utilized a systematic search process, followed by author review, to identify relevant literature. The writing process, multiple re-writes and editing to ensure accurate information, took about 1 year. Because of the length of the process, we performed another systematic literature search in mid 2013 to ensure the paper would be as up to date as possible. The draft then underwent critical review by several expert external reviewers, who provided some very valuable suggestions. Following this, the paper underwent another round of review by the AMSSM Board of Directors. And then it was off to CJSM. So, all in all it was a very thorough process. Hopefully the result is a document that will be a solid resource for the sports medicine community.

2) CJSM: The statement is a comprehensive review of some of the major phenomena in the world of youth sport:  overuse, early specialization, over scheduling, burnout. What do you think are some of the underlying forces driving these phenomena?  Are there different pressures being brought to bear on the modern youth athlete we didn’t see a generation ago?  And if so, what are they? Read more of this post

Filed under Youth Sport Tagged with , ,

Overuse Injuries and Burnout in Youth Sports

December 30, 2013 by 2 Comments

Pawsox_17937_2013-06-30

10,000 hours of practice, and
he might make the Red Sox?*

We’re very pleased at CJSM to open the New Year with a shout:  a fantastic systematic review and position statement on the subject of youth sport, from the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM).

The focus of the paper–in the January 2014 issue, which has just published–is on overuse injuries, which are thought to represent roughly half of all the injuries youth athletes sustain.

All readers of the journal, and of this blog, will find this a worthwhile read.  I have a selfish interest in the subject, as I am currently practicing pediatric sports medicine, and in my professional life I live and breathe the issues discussed in the paper. Moreover, I know several of the authors of this paper, and I think highly of them all.

But this is not about ’eminence based’ medicine.  No, it’s evidence-based all the way.  The paper is both a systematic review and the AMSSM position statement on the subject of “Overuse Injuries and Burnout in Youth Sports”.  The authors conducted a thorough review of the literature, identifying 953 papers and citing 208 unique references in their comprehensive analysis of this broad subject.  They go on to review what is known, and then make recommendations, classified using the Strength of Recommendation Taxonomy (SORT) grading system.

The paper is broadly organized into the following subsections:  epidemiology; risk factors (intrinsic and extrinsic); discussion of high-risk overuse injuries;  discussion of several concepts mentioned frequently in the literature of youth sports (readiness for sport; sport specialization; burnout); and prevention.

The study is so very comprehensive, I cannot do better justice to it than encourage you to read it yourself.  I thought I might here mention some of what stood out for me. Read more of this post

Filed under Elite sport, Epidemiology, Evidence-based Medicine in SEM, General Interest, Injury Prevention, Youth Sport Tagged with ,

AMSSM 2013 Conference in San Diego

April 11, 2013 by

The American Medical Society of Sports Medicine (AMSSM) is having its annual meeting in beautiful San Diego, California this year beginning April 17.  We’re less than a week away and very excited for what promises to be a great conference.

As the new editor for the CJSM blog, I am looking forward to meeting new people and seeing old faces, from the Executive Editor of CJSM (and former blog editor) Chris Hughes (a new friend) to people like William Meehan, one of the recipients of this year’s AMSSM Young Investigator Grants and an old and dear friend. Read more of this post

Filed under General Interest Tagged with ,

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