Dr Mike Loosemore, Lead Sports Physician (South of England) for the EIS, Lead Sport Medic for the GB Boxing Team at the London 2012 Olympics and current Lead Consultant in Sport and Exercise Medicine at the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health, was last week invited to speak at the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) 2014 in Orlando Florida.
Speaking about the conference in Florida, Dr Mike Loosemore said: “The ACSM is one of the biggest sport and exercise conferences in the world. I always leave with a feeling of disappointment, as there are always so many excellent presentations I cannot get around them all. This year there were two main themes; EIM (exercise is medicine) using physical activity to prevent and treat chronic, non-communicable disease and the role of inflammation in injury and disease.
I was asked to speak on the state of exercise medicine in the United Kingdom. Doing research for my presentation showed that there are many centres in the UK doing some outstanding work in the field of promoting an increase in physical activity, in particular the Institute of Sport Exercise and Health. One of the most interesting events was a meeting of all the EIM groups around the world to discuss how physical activity is being promoted in their own countries. This meeting illustrated to me that while individual work drives knowledge in this area, it requires a coordinated state-wide intervention to make the changes required to make a significant difference to public health. I will be launching EIM in the UK later this year. Overall this was an invigorating and inspiring conference.”