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Nau mai haere mai to the Australasian College of Sport and Exercise Physicians (ACSEP) edition of the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM). A recent highlight for the ACSEP has been our annual scientific meeting which took place in Adelaide, Australia. The main theme was the ‘changing climate’ of sport and exercise medicine (SEM). During the meeting, there were multiple sessions that reflected on the impact of our specialty on climate change and the environment. One presentation highlighted the significant volume of CO2 emissions that were associated with high tech imaging. Another was a very interesting presentation of a novel anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture bracing protocol that has successfully treated patients in both Australia and New Zealand, challenging the widely held belief that ACL injuries cannot heal.1 2 Our 2023 meeting will be held in November in Wellington, New Zealand. A core theme will be sports cardiology as we are excited to welcome BJSM editor-in-chief Dr Jonathan Drezner as a keynote speaker, alongside a number of high-quality local speakers. It would be great to have our international colleagues from outside of Australasia join us in Wellington or alternatively subscribe to our online offering.
Hearts: addressing the equity gap
On the theme of cardiology, in this BJSM issue, we would like to highlight the editorial by Grant and colleagues discussing racial disparities in sports cardiology (see page 956) . The authors report that in the US black athletes have higher rates of sudden cardiac death (SCD) and lower arrest survival despite similar prevalence of inherited cardiac syndromes associated with SCD compared with non-black athletes. They emphasise the importance of further research into the socioeconomic factors contributing to these disparities to support the development of strategies to address them. In the Australasian context, it is well known that our Indigenous populations generally have poorer cardiovascular health outcomes, but little is known about the prevalence of relevant inherited cardiac syndromes and SCD in our Indigenous athletes. This is also an important area that requires more attention. A systematic review by Sequi-Dominquez and colleagues reports the effectiveness of different types of exercise in reducing arterial stiffness in children and adolescents (see page 997) . As vascular changes associated with future cardiovascular disease develop early in life, there may be an opportunity to intervene early and prevent future morbidity. This is a potential area where our specialty can play a role.
Knees: emerging trends in ACL injury prevention and treatment
There are several articles in this issue that focus on the ACL. Burtscher and colleagues in their editorial highlight the paucity of research evaluating ACL prevention programmes in recreational alpine skiers, an issue that needs to be addressed given the prevalence of this injury among skiers and the potential for such programmes to prevent many thousands of ACL injuries per year (see page 955) . Another ACL-related paper was authored by PhD Academy Award winner Roy Hoogeslag who investigated ACL suture repair with augmentation compared with ACL reconstruction through a systematic review and a randomised controlled trial (see page 1003) . This is a fascinating paper that along with the novel bracing protocol mentioned earlier, suggests that there may be more to learn about how we best treat these injuries. The final paper related to ACL injuries is from Zsidai and colleagues who use registry data to demonstrate the significant impact that generalised joint hypermobility has on sustaining a second ACL injury within a year of returning to sport following ACL reconstruction (see page 972) .
Exercise as medicine: more evidence for reducing disease
The final focus of this edition is on exercise as medicine. Garcia et al present a systematic review examining the relationship between non-occupational physical activity and the risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer and mortality (see page 979) . Most notably, the study findings have suggested that even performing half the currently recommended minimum levels of activity, or 75 min per week, may be sufficient to significantly lower illness risk. Brown and colleagues, in their observational study, provide evidence to suggest that physical activity may prevent rather than merely delay the recurrence of stage III colon cancer (see page 965) . Professors Izquierdo and Fiatarone Singh call for wider integration of exercise prescription into geriatric medicine with a focus on strength training (see page 953) .
Education: the ACSEP academy
Providing world class education is of utmost importance to the ACSEP. If you are looking for a high-quality resource to further your knowledge of SEM, we would strongly encourage you to check out the ACSEP SEM Academy (https://semacademy.org/). This online resource was created by the ACSEP and consists of 70 modules contributed to by global experts in the field.
The ACSEP is grateful to have been able to introduce this month’s edition of the BJSM. We look forward to catching up with you in November at our annual scientific meeting in Wellington, New Zealand.
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Footnotes
Twitter @drmarkfulcher
Contributors The manuscript was written by LP and reviewed by MLF.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.