Speakers

Dr Nick Cavill

“Evidence-based policy on physical activity: The tale of the Emperor’s New Clothes”

Nick Cavill is a director of an independent public health consultancy, a research associate of the University of Oxford BHF Health Promotion Research Group, and an honorary senior research fellow at the University of Salford. He specialises in the development of policy and programmes on sustainable transport and the links to physical activity.

He is currently a specialist advisor to the National Obesity Observatory, and a member of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence Programme Development Group on walking and cycling. He was one of the core team for the WHO Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEAT) for walking and cycling; a member of the Dept of Health’s Physical Activity Editorial Group; and a member of the World Cancer Research Fund policy panel. He has worked at both Departments of Health and Transport, and was formerly at the Health Education Authority, where he was head of the physical activity programme from 1994 – 2000. Nick recently completed his PhD at the University of Salford, focusing on national policy approaches to promoting physical activity, and was made a member of the Faculty of Public Health through distinction.

Dr Kong Chen

“The Hare and the Tortoise revisited: Measuring physical activity and sedentary behaviour”

Kong Chen was trained in mechanical engineering (BS), biomedical engineering (PhD), and clinical investigation (MS). He has been working in the area of physical activity monitoring for the last 15 years, developing and using a variety of tools extending from portable sensors to metabolic chambers. He was the principal investigator of two NIH R01 grants for method development of objective physical activity monitors in adults and children. Kong is also an expert in quantifying human energy expenditure, autonomic system activity, physical fitness, and body composition in healthy and obese adolescents and adults, as well as in patients with chronic diseases. Currently, he is a clinical investigator of the Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Obesity Branch of the National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney diseases, focusing on energy and body weight regulation, while collaborating with scientists from the US, Iceland, Japan, Sweden, and China.

Associate Professor Malcolm Collins

“Biological mechanisms underlying musculoskeletal soft tissue injuries: Why it is clinically relevant?”

Australian Institute of Sport and Club Warehouse Supported Speaker

Malcolm Collins is a Chief Specialist Scientist at the Medical Research Council (MRC) and an Associate Professor within the Department of Human Biology, University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa.  He obtained a BSc degree majoring in Biochemistry and Physiology and  a BSc (Hons) degree Cum Laude in Biochemistry from the University of Stellenbosch. He was awarded a PhD in Medical Biochemistry on collagen gene expression from UCT in 1993. After completing Post-Doctoral work also in extracellular matrix protein gene expression at the University of Washington in Seattle, USA, he joined the Research Unit for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine at the MRC and UCT. His main area of research is the molecular and genetic mechanisms underlying musculoskeletal soft tissue injuries and other exercise-realted phenotypes.  He has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles or book chapters. He is a Fellow of the European College of Sports Sciences.

Professor Roger Enoka

“Adaptations in Physical Performance from Childhood to Senescence”

Roger M. Enoka completed undergraduate training in physical education at the University of Otago in New Zealand (1968-1970) prior to obtaining an MS degree in biomechanics and a PhD in kinesiology from the University of Washington in Seattle (1974-1981).  He has held faculty positions in the Department of Exercise and Sport Science and the Department of Physiology at the University of Arizona in Tucson (1981-1993) and the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation (1993-1996).  He is currently professor and chair in the Department of Integrative Physiology at the University of Colorado Boulder.  His research generally focuses on the neuromuscular mechanisms that mediate acute adjustments and chronic adaptations in response to physical activity performed by humans, with current projects on age-associated changes in neuromuscular function and the fatigue experienced by persons with multiple sclerosis.

Associate Professor Claude Goulet

“Minimising risk in high risk settings: Do the 3 E’s of injury prevention (education, enforcement or engineering) work?”

Claude Goulet, PhD, is professor in the Department of Physical Education at Laval University, in the province of Québec, Canada. For more than 15 years, his research has been related to safety promotion in sport and physical activities. From 1998 to 2006, he was head of sport safety research at the Québec Ministry of Education, Leisure, and Sport (QMELS). The QMELS is responsible for enforcing a unique law, the Act Respecting Safety in Sports. In accordance with this act, one of the QMELS’s orientations is to “ensure that the safety and physical security and well–‐being of participants are provided for during sports and recreational activities”. Therefore, the research projects of Dr. Goulet cover many spheres of sport participation ranging from informal to organised activities, and from recreational practice to the highest level of sport participation. His interests lie in the epidemiology, the aetiology, the surveillance, and the prevention of sport and physical activity injuries. In addition to his interest in sport safety Dr. Goulet’s research also covers the psychosocial factors associated with the use of performance enhancing substances.

Dr Dale Hanson

“Closing the Gap Between Injury Prevention Research and Community Safety Promotion Practice”

NSW Sporting Injuries Sponsored Speaker

Dale Hanson graduated from Flinders University of South Australia in 1982, initially pursuing a career in General Practice, and subsequently in Emergency Medicine. Since 1986 he has been working as Staff Emergency Physician at Mackay Base Hospital, in regional Queensland.  He is acting Director of Clinical Training at Mackay Base Hospital and Director of Prevocational Training in North Queensland with the Rural Generalist Pathway.  Dr Hanson is an instructor with Advanced Paediatric Life Support Australia.  He is a senior lecturer with James Cook University teaching undergraduate Emergency Medicine and postgraduate Public Health.

Concerned at the high rate of injury in the Mackay Region, he developed an interest in injury research, safety promotion, and social network analysis, completing his Doctorate in Public Health at James Cook University in 2007.  He was awarded a university medial for his doctoral dissertation by James Cook University.

Refshauge Lecturer

Professor Karim Khan

“In search of sports medicine success: Five lessons for clinical, team, and research success”

Australian Sports Medicine Federation Fellows Sponsored Speaker

Karim Khan, MBBS, PhD, MBA, FACSP is an Australian-trained sports physician and editor of the British Journal of Sports Medicine (@BJSM_BMJ). In prehistoric times, Karim contributed to the paradigm shift that ‘tendinopathies’ are not due to inflammatory cell invasion.

More recently, Karim has been a strong advocate of physical activity for public health. Bone health and falls prevention has been one focus via RCTs in older people with osteoporosis and high risk of falls. He notes Steve Blair’s data that physical activity is the most powerful single health modality. The benefits of 30 minutes of physical activity daily are equivalent to finding a cure for smoking, diabetes and obesity combined (‘smokadiabesity’). Karim practices what he preaches. He is a bike commuter even in Vancouver’s incessant rain and he accumulates 60 minutes of physical activity daily (in bouts of >15 mins – walking is just fine).

He is a founding investigator in the $40 million research enterprise at the University of British Columbia called the Centre for Hip Health and Mobility. As a sports medicine educator, Karim is well known via his contribution to the 118-author textbook — Brukner and somebloke’s Clinical Sports Medicine which is now in its 4th edition with online video Masterclasses (@CSM4ed).

Professor Art Kuo

“What are the limits to human economy?”

Asics Sponsored Speaker

Art Kuo is Professor of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan. His research interests are in human locomotion and balance, using engineering principles to bridge between mechanics and biology. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,graduating with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. He then attended Stanford University for a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering. At the University of Michigan, he directs the Human Biomechanics and Control Laboratory and teaches courses in biomechanics, dynamics, and control systems.

Professor Nanette Mutrie

“It’s hard to persuade some people to walk – or is it?”

Nanette Mutrie, Ph.D., is Chair of Physical Activity for Health, University of Edinburgh, Scotland. She has researched ways of increasing active living with a particular interest in the mental health benefits. Current funded projects include the Scottish Physical Activity Research Collaboration [SPARColl funded by NHS Scotland; www.sparcoll.org.uk]; the promotion of walking with the use of pedometers for older adults and people with learning disabilities [funded by the Chief Scientist’s Office]; the evaluation of the impact structural changes to the environment on walking and cycling [funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council; http://www.iconnect.ac.uk/].

Nanette is an Accredited Sport and Exercise Psychologist with the British Association of Sport and Exercise Science (BASES) and is an Honorary Fellow of that organisation. She is also a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society. With her students and colleagues, she has published over 100 peer reviewed articles on exercise behaviour and intervention strategies. Nanette has editorial roles for The Journal of Physical Activity and Health and Mental Health and Physical Activity and has also contributed to policy, for example, ‘let’s make Scotland more active’ and the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence [NICE] programme on physical activity and the environment [www.nice.org.uk].

Dr Ken Powell

“Stories about physical activity”

Kenneth E. Powell, MD, MPH, is a public health and epidemiologic consultant. He was an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 25 years and with the Georgia Department of Human Resources for 8 years. The relationship between physical activity and health has been an important theme during his career. He initiated the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s epidemiologic work in the area by leading a consolidation of the scientific literature and setting the public health research agenda. He served on the Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; the Committee on Physical Activity, Health, Transportation, and Land Use and the Committee on Progress in Preventing Childhood Obesity for the Institute of Medicine; and is a member of the Physical Activity Work Group for the Task Force for the Guide to Community Preventive Services. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, American College of Epidemiology, and American College of Sports Medicine.

Dr Maria Brosnan

“The Athlete ECG”

Maria Brosnan is a cardiologist based at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne, and reformed triathlete, turned fair weather cyclist. Prior to undertaking medical studies, Maria completed undergraduate study in Exercise Science and an Honours degree on altitude physiology of elite cyclists at the Australian Institute of Sport in 1999.

Maria is currently undertaking a full time research PhD on the topic of “athlete’s heart”, with the support of an NHMRC scholarship. Research is focused on cardiac disorders; both acquired and inherited, which may predispose athletes to arrhythmias or sudden cardiac death.

The major theme of recent research has been assessing the prevalence of ECG abnormalities in a large cohort of elite Australian athletes, the preliminary results of which will be presented at the European Society of Cardiology congress in Munich in late August 2012. Maria has also recently co-authored a review article for eLS Wiley on “Testing athletes for risk of cardiac disease”.

Professor Ross Brownson

“Physical activity policy research: Are we making legislation or sausage?”

Ross C. Brownson, PhD, is a Professor at Washington University in St. Louis. He is involved in numerous community-level studies designed to understand and reduce modifiable risk factors such as physical inactivity, obesity, and tobacco use. In particular, he is interested in the impacts of environmental and policy interventions on health behaviors and he conducts research on dissemination of evidence-based interventions. His research is supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He is the co-director of the CDC-funded Prevention Research Center (PRC)—a five-year, multi-million dollar project aimed at developing innovative approaches to chronic disease prevention. The PRC in St. Louis is a joint research endeavor between the Saint Louis University School of Public Health and Washington University. Dr. Brownson is the author of 7 books and over 300 peer-reviewed articles. His books include Chronic Disease Epidemiology and Control, Applied Epidemiology, Handbook of Obesity Prevention, Communicating Public Health Information Effectively: A Guide for Practitioners, and Evidence-Based Public Health. He is associate editor of the Annual Review of Public Health, and on the editorial board of four other journals. He is a former and founding member of the 15-person CDC Task Force developing the Guide to Community Preventive Services. Dr. Brownson is the recipient of the Award for Excellence in Prevention Research and Research Translation in Chronic Disease (2000, from CDC) and the Abraham Lilienfeld Award for outstanding contributions in teaching and mentoring (2003, from APHA).  Prior to joining academe, he was a division director with the Missouri Department of Health. In this capacity he wrote or co-wrote bills on tobacco access to minors, state clean indoor air, and private insurance coverage of screening mammography/Pap testing. Dr. Brownson is active in numerous professional associations, including the American Public Health Association, the Missouri Public Health Association, and the American College of Epidemiology (where he chairs the Policy Committee)

Dr Chris Carty

“Clinical gait analysis”

Australian and New Zealand Society of Biomechanics Supported Speaker

Christopher P Carty completed undergraduate training in Human Movement Studies at the University of Queensland (2000-2003) prior to obtaining a PhD in Biomechanics from the University of Queensland (2004-2008). Following his post graduate studies Dr Carty was employed as a post-doctoral researcher (2009-present) at Griffith University on projects related to ageing, falls and balance recovery in older adults. He currently holds positions in Queensland Health as clinical motional analysis consultant to the Queensland Children’s Gait Laboratory and in Griffith University as a post-doctoral research in the Centre for Musculoskeletal research. His current research projects focus on balance recovery, pathological gait analysis and neuromusculoskeletal modelling.

Associate Professor David Connell

A/Prof David Connell is a consultant musculoskeletal radiologist and adjunct associate professor at Monash University. He is recognized as an international authority on muscle and tendon injuries. He has authored 91 publications, including book chapters and educational CD-Roms. He has been an invited speaker to major meetings in 19 different countries.  He is the past president of the Australasian Musculoskeletal Imaging Group, sits on the editorial board of 5 journals, and he is an instructor on the Erasmus MRI European diploma.  He has been elected as a fellow to the Sports & Exercise Medicine Faculty (UK).

A/Prof  Connell was a radiologist at the recent London Olympics.  He has a long history of imaging and treating elite athletes from the Royal Ballet, UK Athletics and professional football, rugby and cricket clubs. His current research is on stem cell therapy for the treatment of tendon disorders and osteoarthritis. A/Prof Connell has received over $1 million in funding for his research projects from various sources (AFL, NHMRC, BSSR, UCL). He is married to his beautiful wife Karen and they have 3 lovely children.

Dr James Linklater

James trained in Diagnostic Radiology in Sydney before undertaking a musculoskeletal radiology fellowship at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York in 1997. He works in private practice as a musculoskeletal radiologist in Sydney with Castlereagh Sports Imaging at the North Sydney Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Centre and is widely recognized for his expertise in musculoskeletal imaging and interventions. He was a member of the imaging team at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and was an imaging consultant to the AOC medical team at the Beijing Olympics. He is a consultant radiologist with a number of professional sporting teams in Sydney and to the Asian Football Confederation. He was the convenor of the 2008 AMSIG annual meeting and currently AMSIG president. He was the Ken Johnson Memorial Lecturer at the AOFAS Annual Meeting in 2011 and on the clinical lecture faculty at the ISMRM Annual Meeting in 2009, 2011 and 2012. He has 36 publications in peer reviewed journals, 3 book chapters and has acted as a guest editor of Techniques in Foot and Ankle Surgery and Seminars in MSK Radiology and as a reviewer for a number of journals including Arthroscopy, British Journal of Sports Medicine and Osteoarthritis and Cartilage. He is a clinical lecturer in sports medicine and anatomy at the University of New South Wales. He has ongoing research interests in imaging of the foot and ankle, knee and articular cartilage.

Bronwen Lundy

“Nutrition: An untapped resource in rehabilitation and injury prevention”

Bronwen is an Accredited Practising Dietitian and specialist in sports dietetics. She is currently a Senior Sports Dietitian at the Australian Institute of Sport and National Nutrition Lead for Rowing.  Bronwen Lundy spent five years in England working as the rehabilitation nutritionist for the British Olympic Medical Institute, the nutrition technical lead for the south region of the EIS as well as the performance nutritionist for GB badminton, GB Sprint Canoe Kayak, GB Synchronized Swimming and GB Hockey. She has been on the board of Sports Dietitians Australian and has consulted to the Wallabies, the Waratahs, the Australian Institute of Sport (Slalom Canoe Team), South Sydney and West Tigers Rugby League Clubs. Bronwen has a history as an athlete, being involved with lightweight rowing for over ten years.

Dr Christine Friedenreich

“Physical activity and cancer: What have we learned and what do we still need to determine?”

Christine Friedenreich is a cancer epidemiologist who holds a position as a Senior Research Scientist with Alberta Health Services and is also an Adjunct Professor in the Faculties of Medicine and Kinesiology at the University of Calgary. Dr Friedenreich holds the Alberta Cancer Foundation Weekend to End Women’s Cancers Breast Cancer Chair and holds a Health Senior Scholar from Alberta Innovates-Health Solutions.

Dr Richard Troiano

“Measurement advances in physical activity, sleep, and strength: The US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey”

Dr. Richard (Rick) Troiano is a Research Scientist in the Risk Factor Monitoring and Methods Branch of the Applied Research Program in the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). This branch is responsible for monitoring cancer related risk factors and for developing and improving assessment methods for them. Dr. Troiano received his master’s and doctoral degrees in nutrition from Cornell University. In 1993, he entered government service and the Commissioned Corps of the US Public Health Service as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He joined the Division of Health Examination Statistics of the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), where he helped design the body composition, physical activity and physical fitness components of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Since moving to the NCI, Dr. Troiano has extended his work with the NHANES by implementing the use of devices to obtain objective measures of participants’ physical activity, sleep, and body strength. Dr. Troiano is the author of over 70 publications and has been a member of the Interagency Work Group for the Healthy People 2010 and 2020 Nutrition and Overweight Focus Area and the Healthy People 2020 Physical Activity and Fitness Focus Area. During a detail to the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Dr. Troiano was the Coordinator of the US Department of Health and Human Services development of the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. He is currently a member of a subcommittee addressing Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans Mid-course Report : Strategies for Increasing Physical Activity Among Youth.

Andrew Wallis

“Demystifying the groin”

Andrew Wallis is a Sports and Manipulative physiotherapist who graduated from The University of South Australia in 1995. He went on to complete a Masters in Sports Physiotherapy and Masters in Manipulative Physiotherapy in 1999 and 2000.

Andrew is currently employed as the head physiotherapist at St. Kilda Football Club (from 2007) and works privately in Melbourne at Malvern Sports Medicine Centre. Prior to his time at St. Kilda he worked at the Melbourne Victory Football Club from 2005-2007 .  Working in the field of elite sport over the last 15 years, which has also included netball (Thunderbirds), cricket (Redbacks), triathlon and motor racing (DJR), Andrew has developed a special interest in hip and groin pathology. He is also a lecturer on hip and groin pain on the Masters program at La Trobe University.

The above journey has led to the development of an evidence based assessment and treatment model that is the subject of further research attempting to validate this model.