AMSSM Members Travel to Haiti to Advance Athletic Care

Port-au-Prince, Haiti – Seven members of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) are in Haiti this week to provide sports medicine education for nearly 300 physicians, medical students, athletic trainers and first responders.

In partnership with the Haitian Sports Medicine Society (SHAMS), the AMSSM will host its first Sports Medicine/Sports Trauma and Event Medicine Conference in Haiti on June 29 – July 3, 2013. The conference is designed as a “teach-the-teacher” course with the goal of advancing the education of professionals in Haiti who care for active people, from the professional athlete to the weekend warrior.

Led by Dr. Thomas Trojian, Chair of AMSSM’s International and Inter-Organizational Relations Committee, the project is an AMSSM humanitarian initiative to reach out to sports medicine societies in underserved areas of the world to promote healthy lifestyles and heal people from athletic injuries.

“AMSSM is interested in promoting the health of athletic people here in the United States and throughout the world and that is one of the reasons we decided to do this,” Dr. Trojian said. “If we can equip the physicians, trainers and first responders in Haiti with the tools and skills needed to improve athletic care of their patients, we will have succeeded.”

The conference is divided into four components: 1) demonstrations of musculoskeletal ultrasound-guided and surgical procedures; 2) an Introduction to Sports Medicine course for medical students; 3) lectures on topics requested by members of SHAMS such as concussion, sideline management and pre-participation screenings for cardiac issues; and 4) clinical time spent with Haitian physicians treating patients.

In addition to AMSSM members, an orthopedic surgeon from the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) and a neurologist from the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) will be joining the volunteer faculty.

AMSSM gratefully acknowledges SonoSite, Inc. for lending an ultrasound machine, SAM Medical Products for providing splints and the AMSSM Foundation for the shipment of 100 sports medicine books to Haiti.

About the AMSSM: The AMSSM is a multi-disciplinary organization of sports medicine physicians whose members are dedicated to education, research, advocacy and the care of athletes of all ages. Founded in 1991, the AMSSM now comprises more than 2,300 sports medicine physicians whose goal is to provide a link between the rapidly expanding core of knowledge related to sports medicine and its application to patients in a clinical setting. www.amssm.org