Presidential Address - 2000 Millennium Issue
At the dawn of the new millennium,
the Asian Federation of Sports Medicine (AFSM) would
like to send our best wishes for your vigour and
vitality in the promotion of the ever-progressing
field of sports medicine. We are all making plans for
the new year, the new century and the new millennium.
The Asian Federation of Sports Medicine is no
exception.
Sports Medicine - Globalization
Despite the relatively short history, the last ten
years had seen enormous development of sports medicine
in Asia. The inauguration of AFSM in 1990 signified an
important development milestone. We had a rich and
diversified interest in sports.
Sports medicine had also been
practiced in different unique heritage, often amidst
the confluence of both East and West. The extensive
network that we had built in AFSM, both at the
National Sports Medicine Association and the
individual level, would help foster stronger ties for
professional and academic exchanges. The calendar of
events in the last ten years illustrated very well the
track record of our activities in different regions of
Asia, highlighting the importance of interaction and
mutual inspiration.
In the new millennium, with the
advancement of information technology, AFSM is
determined to further strengthen this very important
element of communication amongst members. We will use
our website extensively to facilitate exchange of
information in the electronic superhighway. The
website will also serve as the focal point of
communication when we prepare to travel in Asia,
whether in the capacity of academic visit or as a team
doctor, leading a group of sportsmen and sportswomen
for training and competition.
Telemedicine is certainly a reality
nowadays. We will encourage centres that have already
the infrastructure and technical know-how to start
initiating these programmes to promote sports medicine
education. The FIMS Team Physician Development Course
has been an enormous success. We will be setting
standards with a new manual for both the instructors
and participants for this course. The participants
will now be able to complete their course partly
through the assistance of the information technology
at their own pace and in their home environment, and
at the same time, attend a regional hands-on workshop
to acquire the practical skill which is an important
integral part of the course.
The human touch of interaction will
never be replaced entirely with new technology. We
will emphasize very much the personal experiences and
contacts that we have built up over the years in the
Intercontinental Travelling Fellowships. The
travelling fellows are ambassadors of sports medicine
and they will make life-long friends with their
travelling companions and the hosts. We would like to
see these future leaders in sports medicine start
building up the personal contacts to enhance their
professional development in sports medicine.
Sports Medicine - Social
Responsibility
As we move into this new millennium, we have to make
sports medicine relevant to the need and aspiration of
our community. The demographic and health indices are
ever-changing in different countries. We are seeing
greater emphasis on physical activities, exercise and
sports in different sectors of society. As a
compliment to this concept of "Total Well-Being
in Health", we, as sports medicine practitioner,
should be responsive and sensitive to the
ever-demanding need of the community. In the past
years, we had initiated excellent areas of
deliberation, leading to subsequent publication of
monographs in the field of "Sports and
Children" and "Active Ageing".
In the challenging years ahead, may
be we should be looking at other specific target
groups such as "sports and woman",
"sports and the handicapped person" and
"sports and person with chronic diseases".
They are enormous health and social economic issues in
our society. For every dollar we invest in the
promotion of physical activity and exercise, we may be
saving an extra dollar in the entire health care
delivery system.
Elite athletes will always remain at
the limelight of attention in the sporting arena.
Performance enhancement is now an integral part of
application of sports medicine. We would like to
witness a worldwide campaign of success in providing a
fair play environment for all athletes with our
determination to work on the Anti-Doping Declaration
around the world. At the same time, the application of
science and medicine to the elite athletes will
provide the basis for performance enhancement. The
future direction of research in these areas is most
stimulating!
Professor KM
Chan
