Celebrating specialty recognition

Sports medicine in Holland is in celebratory mood after its recognition as a full medical specialty. Fifteen years of campaigning, hard work and determination have paid off. Big thanks to the chairman, board, staff and members of the special committees who worked tirelessly to make this happen. They faced many hurdles which they have successfully taken to achieve this great feat.

Most care provided by the 129 Dutch sports medicine physicians will now be covered by the national healthcare insurance, signalling a new era. Getting the word out to athletes, to patients with chronic conditions (who will benefit from more exercise) and to general practitioners is now vital to ensure everyone can benefit from sports medical care. Implementing change involves new challenges and we are confident these hurdles will be overcome with the same dedication and skill, ensuring continued success.

This month's cover reflects the successful completion of the challenges faced and brings us on to another great achievement—reaching consensus on femoroacetabular impingement syndrome. We thank Damian Griffin for his help with the cover.

Hip (impingement) hooray!

We present the consensus paper written after Sports Hip 2016 in Warwick (see page 1169). We think it will be of value to all the BSJM readers. We hope that this will provide a solid foundation which further advances in the field can build on. Two accompanying editorials (see pages 1162, 1163) discuss the importance and impact of the consensus paper. There is also a practical paper outlining a conservative treatment programme ‘Personalised hip therapy’ for the management of femoroacetabular impingement syndrome (see page 1180). This treatment is being compared to surgery in the UK Fashion trial (http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN64081839), which is nearing completion. The results will have a major impact in the field of femoroacetabular impingement and are eagerly awaited.

Orange articles

We are proud to also present a host of papers from Dutch sports medical authors and institutions in this issue. Robert-Jan de Vos features in Inside track (see page 1225), and together with his colleagues from the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam he presents an interesting editorial on the possible links between osteoarthritis and tendinopathy (see page 1164). Marinus Winters et al present the Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome score—the first patient reported outcome measure for this common overuse injury (see page 1192). This short questionnaire can be used in clinical practice and future studies. It will allow comparison of treatment outcomes, which were previously assessed in a heterogeneous manner. In this way the field will advance and clinicians will be better informed as to what they can expect from different treatment strategies. Van Reijen et al compared ways of providing a programme to prevent recurrent ankle sprains in a randomised study (see page 1200). There was no difference in compliance between using a mobile application or a written material.

VSG conference

The Dutch sports medicine association (VSG) will hold its 12th annual sports medicine scientific conference on 24th and 25th November in Ermelo, Holland. There are a host of great speakers and topics from Dutch sports medicine and sports physiotherapy. We are looking forward to this year's keynotes; Paul Dijkstra, Eric Scherder, Sanjay Sharma, Duncan Tennent and Barbara Wondrasch. The new look conference offers two parallel sessions on sports injuries or exercise is medicine for the complete 2 days or a multitude of workshops. In this way we hope it will offer something for everyone (as long as you speak Dutch!) Check out the programme online: http://www.sportmedischwetenschappelijkjaarcongres.nl.

All in all, a great edition to round off another great year for Dutch sports medicine. We hope you enjoy reading it.