Imagine Noah’s arc full of specialists who support and care for athletes that the JCSMS. Instead of the giraffes and elephants, we have 2 representatives from each professional association (sports nutritionists, osteopaths, chiropractors, MDs, podiatrists, psychologists, athletic trainers, opthamologists, kinesiotherapist, dentists, pediatricians, PM&R,) along with organizations such as: American Kinesiotherapy Association, Canadian Athletic Therapists Association, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), NCAA, National Federation of State High School, President’s Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition, SHAPE America, Special Olympics, USADA, and the United States Olympic Committee.
I was one of the representatives of the American Chiropractic Association (ACA) Council on Sports Injuries and Physical Fitness this year which was an honor. W
hile we are together we discuss how to better collaborate with each other to improve care for athletes and the US population. We will have specialists from the U.S. government (including the former acting surgeon general), academia, and professional athletes address the delegates about a plethora of topics that will evolve into collaboration and action items to bring back to our respective organizations.
This year in Minneapolis, a few of the topics we discussed were: how to improve the pre-participation physical to better prevent injuries, how to protect athletes from the risks of specialization at a young age, how to increase participation in sports at the numbers are declining year after year and the effects of this. Furthermore, we addressed the economic barriers to access a sport, preventing sexual abuse in the pediatric athletic population, and E-Sports.
There was an opportunity to get a 6:30 butt-kicking workout by an Paralympic Gold medalist, Joe Berenyi, thanks to KT Tape.
It is also an opportunity to get out into the community of our host city. This year we went to a Minnesota Gophers hockey game, toured the Mayo Clinic and Sports Medicine Clinic of the Timberwolves and Lynx. The crowd favorite was getting on the ice for a curling lesson at the Team USA curling training headquarters.
Focusing on what’s best for patient care is refreshing and encouraging. Kudos to the JCSM for facilitating such discussions and comradery.