Leadership and teamwork

The theme of this year’s annual meeting is ‘Physician Leaders in Sports Medicine.’ AMSSM’s publicly available strategic plan notes the society’s desire ‘by 2030…to be a worldwide leader in sports medicine.’1 With both these themes in mind, incoming AMSSM President Rebecca Myers, MD, and AMSSM 2024 Programme Chair Jennifer Malcolm, DO, have shared their vision of sports medicine leadership in their lead editorial, ‘Physician Leaders in Sports Medicine.’ (see page 126) They note the necessity of making leadership development central to our field. Leaders are not just born. They are made.

Drs. Myers and Malcolm also note the importance of service leadership in the mission of AMSSM. We argue that central to the goal of serving our patients and communities is also serving our own needs for wellness. We work in a profession notable for its steadily increasing rates of burn-out and attrition.2 3 An important editorial highlighting these phenomena is ‘Sports Medicine Physician Burnout—An American Perspective,’ written by AMSSM members Elizabeth Albright, DO, Rahul Kapur, MD, and Emily Miller, MD. (see page 124) The piece details not only the severity of the problem of burn-out in our profession but also the characteristics we each possess to maintain our wellness by cultivating personal resiliency. We want to extend this important concept to emphasise that each of us, as we rise within our teams to take leadership positions, must ensure that personal wellness is prioritised as a key component of any organisational strategic vision. Personal resilience can only go so far. The culture and interpersonal relationships we work with in our teams are crucial in fostering an environment conducive to personal wellness.

It is in giving that we receive

We are delighted to share with you two service spotlights which highlight the unique ways AMSSM physician leaders give to their communities. The story of Robert Monaco, MD, (see page 172) tells how two American and Thai sports medicine physicians took a friendship to another level in developing a musculoskeletal ultrasound teaching programme in two countries. A second service spotlight featuring Pierre Rouzier, MD (see page 174) is a compelling depiction of how a ‘retired’ physician may be stepping away from the sideline but is not sitting out in the ‘game of life.’ Dr Rouzier’s story of bringing yoga classes to incarcerated individuals illustrates the benefits of ‘exercise as medicine’ for a marginalised community and will surely move you. In the unique stories of each of these physicians, the personal and transformational aspect of their service is emphasised.

Research and innovation: central to leadership in the field of sports medicine

We would be remiss if we ended this ‘warm up’ without noting a sine qua non of leadership in any medical field: research and innovation. As with any BJSM issue, we have included some of the highest quality and potentially most impactful studies—original research and systematic reviews—that will be published in sport and exercise medicine in 2024. From AMSSM authors comes a systematic review on extracorporeal shockwave therapy (see page 154) and a scoping review on health disparity research in North America (see page 154) . Global contributions include a systematic review on the effect of fasting in Ramadan on health related indices and athletic performance (see page 136) , and original research investigating the epidemiology of lower extremity injuries in elite women’s football (see page 136) . As paediatric sports medicine specialists, we also want to highlight our particular interest in a scoping review looking at youth field sports coaches as agents of injury prevention. (see page 144)

Finally, please note the two additional cardiology-focused editorials in this edition, one from Marc-Jean Giles and AMSSM member Aaron Baggish, MD (see page 121) and another from Australian Jessica Orchard PhD, MPH and colleagues (see page 122) , whose expert opinions are sure to drive discussion and further research.

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Resilience

We end by returning to the concept of resilience and a special nod to the ‘Patient Voices’ article by athlete Bridget Watkins. (see page 176) An Alaskan dog musher, she regales us with her story of overcoming considerable adversity to eventually conquer the famed 1000 mile long Iditarod. When reading this you will be reminded that resilience is, ’….a transformative force capable of turning setbacks into victories and dreams into reality.’

Leadership, teamwork, transformation, resilience—this issue of BJSM tackles some powerful subjects. And so too will the AMSSM 2024 annual meeting.