Presidential Address: Sports Medicine–Past, Present, and Future

James A. Nicholas M.D.

From The Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletic Trauma, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York

It is a great and privileged moment in my life to speak before you today as the president of this vigorous society. The American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) has played a key role in shaping how the vast field of orthopaedic surgery relates to sports medicine. I look back with amazement as well as pride at the impact of the AOSSM on the evolution of sports medicine over just the last 7 years.

Sports medicine did not receive attention during the Great Depression of the 1930s, through the Second World and Korean Wars. Yet, in the past 30 years, the science of sports medicine and fitness has developed into a multidisciplinary field which affects many facets of our lives. We have witnessed a fitness explosion in this country and the public has responded with a surging involvement in sports participation. We meet today as a testament to this growth, as scientists who must be experts in the disciplines of sports medicine, and as practitioners who must both treat athletic injuries and answer the array of fitness questions.

The American Journal of Sports Medicine, Vol. 8. No. 6