Sports Medicine Australia turns 50

Sports Medicine Australia (SMA) is delighted to have become one of the member society partners of the BJSM recently and this means each member of SMA receive online access to the BJSM as part of their SMA membership. This inaugural SMA-themed issue of BJSM coincides with a number of significant milestones in the life of SMA. In 2013, SMA celebrates its 50th anniversary. Over the 50 years, SMA has evolved from being an organisation established to provide medical support for athletes in competitions, to become one of the world's truly multidisciplinary sports medicine membership organisations with the charter of making sport and physical activity safer for all participants from elite to community level.

New partnerships

The timing of the partnership with BJSM could not be more symbolic as it represents a concerted effort by SMA to expand its relationships, both in Australia and beyond, to ensure that SMA members continue to have access to the best available information, and to extend the reach of many of the excellent sports medicine activities that have been initiated through the well-recognised Australian sports medicine industry.

The 2013 SMA Conference in Phuket

The 2013 Asics Conference of Science and Medicine in Sport will be held in Phuket, Thailand from  22–25 October. In addition to attracting a strong contingent of Australian delegates, the conference is anticipated to attract a wider audience, particularly from the Asian region. Speakers such as renowned physiotherapist and researcher, Craig Purdam, will head a soon to be announced star-studded speaker cast. This follows on from the 2012 Be Active conference in Sydney, Australia, which attracted some of the world's leading physical activity and health researchers and practitioners, and over 1300 delegates from all corners of the globe. While a much more intimate event, the Phuket Conference will be memorable in combining the opportunity for delegates to participate in a great scientific programme in a relaxed resort-style environment. Those that have attended previous boutique events in Fiji, Hamilton Island and Port Douglas still speak fondly of these events.

JSAMS collaboration with BJSM

The SMA membership's thirst for evidence in sports medicine cannot be underestimated. The partnership with BJSM reflects SMA's responsiveness to member needs through the provision of the highest quality evidence in sports medicine. As a result of the BJSM partnership, SMA members will receive a second top 10 Sports Medicine and Science Journal as part of their base membership. The BJSM partnership will see improved collaboration with SMA's own journal, the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport (JSAMS) at the editor level. This will greatly expand the variety of content available to SMA members and improve opportunities for locally relevant research to be accessed. We hope this will also enrich both publications and further raise the standard of both BJSM and JSAMS for an even richer reader experience via various mediums including blogs, social media and more traditional forms of knowledge exchange.

Future challenges

In some ways the SMA 50th anniversary is quite serendipitous as members will this year be asked to make a critical decision on the future of SMA when they cast their vote on a change to the SMA Governance structure and a proposal called OneSMA. OneSMA proposes to merge the nine organisations that make up SMA, into one organisation and such streamlining is envisaged to result in improved efficiency and responsiveness, increased resources and greater consistency of services while maintaining the unique local flavours that members and the broader community also appreciate. This has not been a decision that has been taken lightly and the OneSMA proposal is an endeavour to better equip SMA for the future challenges that face many organisations like ours while enhancing the services that SMA members have come to expect. We urge all SMA members to ensure that they engage in the conversation and keep abreast of the OneSMA communication that will be distributed over the coming months. But most importantly, please ensure you cast your ballot on the future direction of our great organisation on 26 June.

We trust you enjoy the first SMA-partnered issue of BJSM. The issue highlights several papers authored by Australian researchers and practitioners and provides a flavour of the breadth and strength of research taking place in Australia. This is the first of two BJSM issues annually that SMA will partner and play a lead role in shaping content. In addition to these two issues, a further 16 issues, and the entire BJSM archive, will be accessible annually. We welcome reader feedback on the type of content you would like to see included in these two annual SMA partnered issues. Please email members@sma.org.au if you are interested in shaping of future issues by nominating for one of our SMA partner issue editorial committees, or if you have any specific items you wish to have addressed in future issues of BJSM.