Pediatric sports medicine has dramatically changed throughout the past 10 to 15 years. In that time, the Pediatric Research in Sports Medicine Society (PRiSM) was formed. The organization hosted its ninth annual meeting in Houston, Texas, at the end of January. Scottish Rite for Children had representatives presenting, attending and leading research meetings and also collaborating with peers from across the country. The Scottish Rite for Children Center for Excellence for Sports Medicine clinical and research teams have been a growing force in this specialty as well as this organization and this was demonstrated throughout PRiSM’s annual meeting.

“To say the least, our team had an impressive presence this year. I couldn’t be more proud of the hard work and accomplishments of this enthusiastic group. I can’t wait to see what next year will bring.”

— Assistant Chief of Staff Philip L. Wilson, M.D.

Para Sports Medicine

The weekend featured a pre-conference session on a growing area of pediatric sports medicine care and research. Co-director of the pre-course program on adaptive and Para sports Stephanie Tow, M.D., shared her passion for taking care of these athletes. The program covered an introduction to considerations that contribute to classification for different sports and athletes with varying abilities as well as a review of musculoskeletal and medical considerations for this population. Complete with hands-on experience with adaptive equipment, attendees learned the challenges of kicking a ball while using “sticks” (forearm crutches) and playing rugby in a modified wheelchair for sports participation.

Sports Medicine Surgery and Rehabilitation

Condition-Specific Presentations

Ben Johnson, P.A.-C., presented a project that looked for differences among patients with femoracetabular impingement (FAI). The study compared hip X-rays in different positions and found that there may be both dynamic and static conditions of impingement. This may lead to further studies to address new treatments for those conditions.

An area of focus for our team is research on anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstructions in children and adolescents. Results from several efforts were selected to be shared throughout the weekend. This included a presentation of a Scottish Rite study given by Jessica Dabis, P.T., D.P.T.This study looked at ankle range of motion in late-stage rehab and found that increasing ankle dorsiflexion (ankle flexion) may be an important element of post-operative rehabilitation for a safer return to sports.

Former clinical research coordinators K. John Wagner, B.S., and Connor Carpenter, B.B.A., presented projects in which they collaborated with the sports medicine team at Scottish Rite. Both have excelled in high-quality research in clinical outcomes and pediatric pain management that have provided a great foundation for their pursuit of careers as academic physicians.  Carpenter is in his first year at Texas A&M Medical School in College Station, Texas. Wagner is in the dual-track M.D./M.B.A. program at The University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School and McCombs School of Business.

Sports Medicine clinical research coordinators Hannah Worrall, M.P.H., CCRP; Madison Brenner, B.S.A.; and Claire Althoff, B.A.; were instrumental in the preparation of Scottish Rite’s projects, abstract submissions, posters and podium presentations for this annual meeting.

Multi-Center Study Participation
Sports Cohort Outcomes REgistry (SCORE) is a multi-center quality improvement registry including data from 29 surgeons representing 21 institutions across the country. Scottish Rite hosted the group’s annual meeting during the PRISM meeting. Participants met to discuss data from the project and identified ways to use this information to improve the care of pediatric athletes. Findings from initial work from this group were also presented to the larger audience throughout the meeting.

Beyond the projects already mentioned, our staff are contributors of many multi-center projects that were discussed throughout the weekend. Learn more about Factors Associated with Clavicle Treatment Study (FACTS), SCORE and other projects like these on the Sports Medicine research page [link].

Sport-Related Concussions
As the chair of the concussion research interest group, Shane M. Miller, M.D., described several initiatives this multi-center and multidisciplinary group has worked on throughout the course of the last few years. Miller and Jacob C. Jones, M.D., described two of the four projects presented in the session. Some interesting directions for recent and future focus areas for research included return-to-driving recommendations after concussion and the care and prevention of sport-related concussions in para and athletes who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Movement Science Projects
Assistant director of the Scottish Rite Movement Science Lab, Sophia Ulman, Ph.D., is the acting chair of the sports specialization RIG and the chair-elect of the injury prevention RIG. Her enthusiasm and passion were recognized and appreciated by many attendees. Other members of the Scottish Rite Movement Science Lab team were also actively involved in the program and research interest group meetings, including bioengineer Alex Loewen, M.S., who presented on a current project that is testing how an unloader brace may affect the knee.