No longer from Atlanta, it’s global: AMSSM 2020

April 14, 2020 by

In periods of crisis such as this unprecedented time we are all experiencing, there are opportunities for innovation, experimentation…..even revolution.

As was true for so many of our readers, CJSM was looking forward to the annual meeting of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) to be held in Atlanta April 25th – 29th.  In what should be filed under the “Not Breaking News” category, a novel virus called COVID-19 has spread globally, and in the wake of this pandemic sports and sports medicine has gone dark in a way none of us has ever experienced.  The IOC World Conference on Prevention of Injury & Illness in Sport  re-scheduled to 2021, the AMSSM and after it the Canadian Academy of Sport and Exercise Medicine (CASEM) canceled their 2020 annual conferences, and these represent just a few of the shifts in our world that have occurred since February.

The good news in all of this is that the AMSSM is moving forward with a virtual conference April 25-29th  — just like many of us are working through the kinks of telemedicine as we try to serve our patients in the era of COVID, the AMSSM is putting on the first virtual conference in its history, the details of which can be found here. CJSM has always published the abstracts for the AMSSM proceedings, and we will be making them freely available to all during the period of April 25th – 29th.

Leading this revolution is our Jr. Associate Editor Jason Zaremski, MD, who just so happens to have been THE organizer for the content of AMSSM 2020.  I can tell you he had a simply fantastic program set up for Atlanta, and among the events I am personally grieving this spring I include this:  Dr. Zaremski put an untold amount of time and energy into bringing together what would have been a memorable physical conference.  And he has carried on and is determined to make this virtual experience one we will never forget.

We all should have been giving him a rousing standing ovation in Atlanta as we enjoyed the fruits of this labor.  Members of the sports medicine community in general, and AMSSM specifically (myself included) owe him a huge debt of gratitude, and we should all remember to give him, and the entire programming committee, a shout out when we next meet, face-to-face, at some conference in a post-COVID future.

And now, Dr. Zaremski will share his thoughts about AMSSM 2020, the virtual experience.

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As no doubt nearly all of our readers of the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine, COVID-19 has impacted our personal and professional lives, as well as the lives of everyone around us. Our daily routines have changed, our job descriptions might have changed, and we are in a new normal at this time. However, it has been humbling to see so many individuals pull together for the greater good in our communities locally, as well as in our regions and countries from around the world. From the perspective of sports medicine clinicians, we are trying to find the right approach of how to best serve our patients, communities, and teams. Furthermore, our responsibilities to continue to teach our next generation of sports medicine providers must continue. With that in mind, the AMSSM Annual Meeting was converted to a free virtual non-CME version of the 2020 AMSSM Annual Meeting over the original dates of the Annual Meeting from April 25-29. Read more of this post

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AMSSM Mental Health Position Statement — The CJSM Podcast

February 14, 2020 by 1 Comment

Not often one gets to hang out with TWO past AMSSM presidents. R to L: Cindy Chang M.D. and Margot Putukian M.D.

CJSM has just published a new position statement (and executive summary) from the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM): Mental Health Issues and Psychological Factors in Athletes: Detection, Management, Effect on Performance, and Prevention.

These publications are fruits of a project several years in the making and requiring the labor of several individuals.  The co-chairs of the committee charged to do this work, and the two co-lead authors of the CJSM manuscript, are Cindy Chang M.D. and Margot Putukian M.D.

Drs. Chang and Putukian are, as many of the readers of the blog and listeners of the podcast know, past presidents of the AMSSM. The group they headed has produced an outstanding resource on a topical subject: the mental health of the athletes we treat.

I have always been happy to count Drs. Chang and Putukian, Cindy and Margot, as friends as well as esteemed colleagues.  Moreover, for anyone who knows them personally, it will not come as a surprise that the two have known each other for a long time and share a particularly close bond.

And so it made for a lively conversation to have them both as guests on the podcast so that they could discuss this new position statement.  It’s not often I have two guests to chat up — come to think of it, the last time that happened Dr. Chang teamed up with yet another past-president of the AMSSM, Matt Gammons.

Read the position statement and the executive summary, and find the podcast on our journal website or in our iTunes library.  And if you are heading to Atlanta in April for AMSSM’s 29th annual meeting, we’ll see you all there.

 

Filed under CJSM Podcasts, Mental Health in Sport Tagged with

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