Health News
Report on CASEM’s 2011 annual conference

Aug. 22, Ottawa, Ont. – The Canadian Academy of Sport and Exercise Medicine (CASEM) held its annual conference in St. John’s, Newfoundland on July 14-16, 2011.

A number of highly relevant topics were presented by leaders in sport medicine, such as Drs. Jack Tauntan, Bob Brock and Derek Mackesy. Presentations included Evidence-based sport medicine: answering clinical questions and making recommendations to patients (by Dr. Pierre Fremont); Lessons from the field – Olympic Games (Dr. Bob McCormack); Where does it start – Patterns of doping in high school and college athletes (Dr. Gloria Cohen) and more.

As well, presenters provided overviews and recent research findings regarding specific clinical issues such as management of knee osteoarthritis, first time dislocation of the shoulder, and transient quadriplegia and spinal stenosis.

Workshop information included stretching and performance with a preview of the work of Dr. Behm on ways to potentially improve performance with Dynamic stretching; the recommendation that young male overhead athletes are very prone to repeated dislocation of their shoulders and, thus, require an orthopedic consultation; inclusion of femoral stress fracture in the differential diagnosis for female runners; and discussions surrounding transient acute nerve injuries, also known as “stingers”, with considerations regarding guidelines on return to play and long term sequelae.

The conference provided an opportunity to assess the VANOC legacy. The viewpoint that has emerged and been strengthened by this dialogue is that cutting-edge sports sciences must incorporate a multidisciplinary approach, as health teams have the potential to achieve more favourable outcomes.

The next CASEM conference is being planned with a focus on exercise medicine. It is scheduled for June 20-23, 2012 and will be held at the Delta Grand Okanagan Resort in Kelowna, British Columbia. For more information, please visit www.casm-acms.org