FIMS mail - 1st edition 2013 (Lausanne, 31 March 2013)

Message from the President

Lausanne, 31 March  2013

Dear Colleagues, dear Friends,

I sincerely hope you had an excellent start of the year. 

This FIMSmail gives an account of the FIMS activities during the first months of  2013. I am pleased to inform you on a consensus panel FIMS is preparing together with the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). Despite several initiatives of sports medicine bodies, sports federations and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the views on and the practice of pre-participation evaluations (or pre-competition medical assessments, periodic health evaluations, etc. – the variety of terms reflecting the variety of approaches)  in sports still differ considerably. We therefore decided to make another effort to summarise the current evidence on the topic to inform decisions by physicians and sports governing bodies when defining their approach. I further report on our initiative to revive FIMS´s relationship with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), on projects of the standing commissions and upcoming events.

I am further very happy that in this newsletter, after optimising the application and evaluation process, we publish the first nine designated FIMS Collaborating Centres of Sports Medicine (FIMS-CCSM). I have elaborated on the objectives of this worldwide collaboration network before, but would like to introduce to you a further aspect that is as important for the current and future centres as for our general self-conception and communication as an international organisation.

In line with FIMS´s objectives, we have consciously abstained from creating yet another group of centres of excellence. Apart from the overuse of the term, leading to its increasing dilution, it does not convey the important aspects of cooperation, education, development and coaching as they represent pillars of our approach. Nevertheless, these FIMS-CCSMs surely stand for established standards in sports medicine. Over decades of conducting team physician courses at different levels internationally, supporting travelling fellows, issuing position statements, organising 32 world congresses and now publishing the third edition of the FIMS Team Physician Manual, FIMS has established standards in sports medicine worldwide like no other organisation. Upholding this standard is our daily commitment to athletes and every exercising individual, and a much more tangible value than abstract notions of excellence.

The FIMS Executive Committee and the standing commissions are dedicated to continuously develop and raise this FIMS Standard of Sports Medicine, but we may only do so with the support of our national sports medicine associations and all our individual members. Each and everyone one of you, striving to provide best care for athletes and the general population in her / his daily routine, maintains this standard, and I would like to sincerely thank you for that.

With my very best wishes,

Fabio Pigozzi, MD
FIMS President

FIMS Collaborating Centres of Sports Medicine

Following the evaluation of the first submitted applications by the Review Committee in autumn last year, FIMS is proud to announce the following institutions as newly designated FIMS Collaborating Centres of Sports Medicine (FIMS-CCSM):

Austria

Austrian Institute of Sports Medicine (ÖISM – Österreichisches Institut für Sportmedizin), Vienna.

Belgium

Sports Medical Advice Centre Bruges (SMAC Brugge), Bruges.

Brazil

Associacao Educador Sao Carlos (AESC, Hospital Mãe de Deus), Porto Alegre.

Italy

Centre for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine, University of Rome “Foro Italico”, Rome.

South Africa

Clinical Sport and Exercise Medicine Research Group, UCT/MRC Research Unit for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine, University of Cape Town, Cape Town;

Centre for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg;

Section Sports Medicine, Sports Centre, University of Pretoria, Pretoria;

Campus Health Services, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch.

Turkey

Sports Medicine Department, School of Medicine, University of Ankara, Ankara.

We warmly welcome the Colleagues to this network and are very much looking forward to starting our collaboration in advancing the training, continuous education and research in sports medicine on the local, regional, national and international level and particularly helping to grow the discipline in areas where it is still developing.

The application and accreditation process has been further consolidated and a formal agreement defining the roles and responsibilities of both the CCSM and FIMS has been developed by FIMS´s Swiss legal advisor. All the relevant information including the application form may be found on the FIMS website.

We therefore herewith invite new applications by Colleagues from Centres worldwide which may be submitted at any time from now to the end of July. The Review Committee will evaluate the received applications during August and September and submit their recommendations to the FIMS Executive Committee meeting which will be held in October in Sochi.. Based on the ExCo decisions, the newly designated centres will be announced with the last FIMSmail of the year. We wish to encourage members everywhere to apply and become part of the network of FIMS-CCSMs, so that together we may achieve our common objectives in athletes´ and public health.

FIMS-ACSM Consensus Panel on pre-participation evaluation in sports

In close collaboration with Jim Whitehead, ACSM Executive Vice President, FIMS is preparing a consensus panel meeting to develop a FIMS-ACSM statement on the current evidence on the pre-participation evaluation in sports. Despite an abundance of literature on the topic, including the 2009 IOC Statement, practices worldwide continue to differ substantially. We therefore want to explore how FIMS and ACSM may best collaborate with others to be a catalyst for advances in pre-participation medical evaluation and screening internationally. A consensus panel will first need to identify the international commonalities and differences among the most prevalent approaches to the evaluation of athletes (e.g., Italy, Japan, US, IOC, etc.) and the key assumptions, goals and realities that have led to the major differences, such as whether routine cardiovascular screening should be a requirement (e.g., factors such as risk stratification approaches, government action, cost, insurance, equipment and personnel availability, sports health versus public health aims, population differences, etc.). It will further have to investigate the comparative efficacy and assess the cost-benefit relation among the most prevalent athlete evaluation strategies and determine gaps and opportunities for progress in scientific research and evidence-based investigative medicine.

The consensus panel meeting will take place on 1 June 2013 in Indianapolis, Indiana, in conjunction with the 2013 ACSM Annual Meeting / Exercise Is Medicine World Congress and comprise carefully selected experts. The meeting still requires considerable preparation by FIMS and ACSM, but we are confident to be able to achieve major progress in this controversial area of our discipline.

FIMS renews ties with UNESCO

Following a recent meeting of the FIMS President with Mr Alexander Schischlik, Team Leader Anti-Doping and Sports of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris, the relationship between FIMS and UNESCO has been revived resulting in an invitation to FIMS to attend the fifth UNESCO World Sport Ministers Conference which will be held in Berlin from 28 to 30 May 2013, organized by the German Federal Ministry of the Interior in cooperation with UNESCO. The conference will focus on the fight against match-fixing, corruption and doping in order to maintain the integrity of sport. The agenda will also include participation in and through sport, especially with regard to implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and encouraging more girls and women to take part in sport. Other topics discussed will be promoting investment in sport and physical education programmes and standards for large-scale sporting events.  Ministers responsible for sport in the 195 UNESCO Member States and eight associate members, as well as experts and delegations from the United Nations, other international organizations, major international sport organizations and NGOs are expected to attend, making this an ideal forum for FIMS to establish and develop relationships with international key players and identify partners for specific FIMS projects.

Scientific Commission

Albeit late, we wish to alert you to the FIMS Position Statement “Musculoskeletal ultrasound imaging in sports” by Professor Jan Gielen recently published in the International SportMed Journal  and freely accessible for all FIMS members (http://www.ismj.com/).

Interfederal Commission

Physicians and physiotherapists travelling with their teams to events abroad are exposed to a broad range of working conditions from strict regulations requiring temporary licensing and detailed import declaration of medications and equipment, to loopholes in a country´s professional and customs´ laws regarding this specific situation.  Finding out about the exact regulations in your country of destination can be a challenge particularly for smaller events where assistance from an influential local organizing committee is lacking. More often than not, colleagues find themselves in situations where the implications for their professional status and liability abroad are for the most part unclear. The Interfederal Commission currently assesses the different regulations and laws applying to the physicians of visiting sports teams in countries worldwide, not only to provide a source of reference with contacts and links for travelling colleagues, but also to examine legal consequences and conceive of a more accommodating solution. The commission highly appreciates any information FIMS members may provide on their home country´s regulations or any other comments and suggestions you might have on this topic (please contact interfederal-chair@fims.org).

Upcoming events

• FIMS Executive Committee meeting 16 May 2013, Salvador, Brazil, in conjunction with the 25th Brazilian Congress of Sports and Exercise Medicine.
• FIMS Executive Committee meeting  25 October 2013, Sochi, Russia.
• FIMS Team Physician Development Course “Emergency & First Aid in Sports Medicine” 28-29 June2013, Petros Nomikos Conference Center, Santorini, Greece;
• FIMS Team Physician Instructor Course 27 June 2013, Petros Nomikos Conference Center, Santorini, Greece;
• 33^rd FIMS World Congress of Sports Medicine 18 – 22 June 2014, Quebec City, Canada.
• 34^th FIMS World Congress of Sports Medicine 30 September - 2 October 2016, Istanbul, Turkey.