5 Questions with Dr. Chad Asplund — President of the AMSSM

Dr. Chad Asplund, President of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (2018 – 2019)

The 2019 annual meeting of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) commences in Houston April 12 and ends April 17.  Like many of hundreds of sport and exercise medicine (SEM) specialists around the world we’ve been looking forward to the event for months.

This meeting represents one of the high points in our field of SEM, a venue for sharing much of the most current, relevant, evidence-based information in our field.  And, as for most such meetings of a medical society, it also represents something of a shareholder meeting for AMSSM members (I happen to be one, as are many of the members of CJSM’s editorial board):  it’s a time for the society to gather and, perhaps change bylaws, discuss finances, introduce new executive and board members, and say good-bye and thank you to the service given by those individuals who are stepping down from such posts.

One of those individuals in any society is the president, the head dude/dudette. We have traditionally touched bases with the outgoing AMSSM president prior to the annual meeting, and this year we had the chance to catch up with Chad Asplund MD, MPH on the ‘year that was’ for AMSSM.

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1. CJSM: We have to begin by asking you about your year as President of the AMSSM. What were your major challenges this year?  What were your high points?

Dr. Asplund (CA): The high points of the year were the finalization of the marketing and branding strategy with a new logo, member seal and messaging.  It was also great to meet and to hear from so many of our members throughout the year.  It was a humbling, but rewarding term as president and I am honored to have been selected.  There were no major challenges, other than media requests regarding the USA Gymnastics (Larry Nassar) and Ohio State (Richard Strauss) cases and the Maryland incident involving the death of Jordan McNair.

2. CJSM: Can you tell the readers a bit about your ‘day job’ – what do you do when you are not busy with AMSSM duties? Read more of this post