SPORTS DOCTORS AUSTRALIA PRESIDENTS REPORT 2008/09

It is with pleasure that I present my final report as President after 4 years of hard work with some great results and some frustrating results. I'm pleased to now hand over the reins to Shane Brune. Shane has the same enthusiasm for Sports Doctors Australia that I have and I know I leave it in very good hands to carry forward. I wish him well in ongoing developments with Sports Doctors Australia. I have tried to keep the communication going between members with regular emails so I will not repeat all the details that I have previously sent out. The major discussion point over the past few years has been developing a relationship with the College of Sport Physicians. I think we progressed quite a deal in the first few years but then progress slowed dramatically as the Sports Physicians were waiting for the verdict on Specialisation issue. Since that time, progress has been very slow. They have agreed to allow some of our members to sit their final examination for obtaining a fellowship with Sports Physicians. Unfortunately the criteria are very strict and very few of Sports Doctors will qualify to sit this final exam. Feedback from the members who have replied has been largely that we don't see much future in continuing relationships with ACSP. We certainly won't close the door on this but at this stage; it seems we have reached a stalemate.

More importantly, we have developed some great relationships with the RACGP. After much work, RACGP has accepted Sports Medicine as a Special Interest group and ultimately we hope this will reach sub-faculty status within the RACGP. Gavan White will be running a workshop at the national conference of RACGP in Perth in October and this will be the official launch of the Special Interest Group. I have had further discussions with them on the development of the group and it seems that all signs are very positive for increasing our relationship with RACGP. I have had some preliminary discussions on what happens to non-RACGP members from Sports Doctors and this is the subject of ongoing development within our relationship. I have had recent talks with University of Queensland who are running a Masters in Sports Medicine. This faculty will be helping to promote Sports Doctors Australia and there may be the possibility a partnership between the RACGP Special Interest Group and UQ Sports Medicine Program to provide ongoing education for our members. This is an exciting development and I will be pursuing that in the next few months.

Our relationship with SMA I feel, remains very strong and SMA has been very supportive of us as we progress. SMA is very appreciative of the work we do for them, particularly with the Emergency Medicine Session and other workshops. I have no doubt that we will continue to work together extremely well. Once again, I sincerely thank the staff at SMA for continuing to provide administrative support for SDRA.

Financially, we remain very viable and we continually look for ways to use our funds in a productive manner. There are other areas I had hoped to progress further with such as, MRI rebate for our members but unfortunately time, has not allowed me to pursue this area. This may depend on the question of specialisation and this may become clearer as time progresses. Other areas that will be looked at as the Specialisation Issue if finalised includes increasing our relationship with physiotherapists, particularly if physios cannot refer directly to Sports Physicians. This is one area that I believe we can get more traction on the market place if this does occur.

Finally, I wish to thank my hard working committee for all the work over the past four years. I particularly would like to thank Brendan de Morton as Secretary, Gavin White as Treasurer and Shane Brune as Vice-President. Shane has been instrumental in pursuing the relationship with ACSP in the past few months. I thank the rest of the committee for their help in developing our attitudes and furthering the ideals of SDRA. I firmly believe there is a significant future for SDRA as we increase our relationships with the groups as I have discussed above. Once again, all the best to Shane and the committee in the further progress of SDRA and I look forward to more members becoming involved in the development.

Dr Neville Blomeley                                                     
President,  SDrA
26 August 2009