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Second International Extreme Sports Medicine Congress set for June
The second International Extreme Sports Medicine Congress will be held June 10-11 at the St. Julien Hotel & Spa in Boulder, Colo. Organized by Omer Mei Dan, MD, this year’s congress is the sequel to the 2014 meeting.
In discussing the first congress, Mei Dan was proud of the impact it had on extreme sports medicine.
“[The first congress] had a major impact around the world,” he said. “We had faculty from more than 14 countries, and each of these representatives went back and spoke in other forums [about the congress] afterward. In many meetings since, based on the impact the first congress had, I have been asked to run a short session on extreme sports in numerous other sports medicine conferences.”
According to Mei Dan, the congress serves as a helpful resource in the treatment of what is often a unique subset of patients.
“A lot of sports doctors attended the conference and used some of the premises presented in treating their patients,” he said, “given that treatment of extreme sports athletes is such a different population.”
Mei Dan added, “Usually, these are things doctors have to face alone, as none of their partners are used to this type of athlete or this type of sport. Being able to share these experiences and come up with a consensus on treatment and other recommendations was an amazing thing to come out of the first meeting.”
Research opportunities
“The research level [has expanded, as] the first congress sparked major interest to conduct more research in a field that is not particularly well researched,” he said. “We have been able to approach this different type of athlete as a team, which has led to them being more amenable to being a part of these studies.”
Mei Dan mentioned a group of BASE jumpers who allowed researchers to collect hormone stress levels from their saliva before and after an 867-foot jump. Stress levels were compared between genders to see how each reacted to the stress before and after the jump and were cross-matched according to gender, experience level, age and other factors.
“[Studies like] this will hopefully shed more light on many more things in the extreme sports medicine field and potentiality teach us how to make these safer for the athlete,” Mei Dan said.
One of the things he is most looking forward to is the content of this year’s Congress.
“The keynote speaker for the Congress is William Gadd, one of the foremost ice and rock climbers in the world and the only person to ice climb Niagara Falls,” Mei Dan said.
Interaction
Attendees will have a chance to interact with the content of the congress in a unique manner.
“We are starting the conference later [in the morning because] we arranged guided adventure sports activities both mornings,” he said. “[Attendees] can go rock climbing with one of the best in the world. We go trail running, mountain biking, paddle boarding. These are open and free for all attendees of the congress.”
“This is a fun congress,” Mei Dan said. “Most physicians do not go to conferences with a smile on their face; they do it because we are doctors. Yes, this [congress] is scientific, but people enjoy it — nobody steps out of the room [during the congress] because nobody wants to miss a thing.” – by Christian Ingram
- For more information:
- Omer Mei Dan, MD, can be reached at 1635 Aurora Ct., Aurora, CO 80012. email: omer.meidan@ucdenver.edu.
Disclosure: Mei Dan reports no relevant financial disclosure.