By AOSSM
April is Youth Sports Safety Month. To raise awareness about sports injuries among young athletes across the country, the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) and the STOP Sports Injuries campaign are looking at an evolving trend to increase outreach – social media. The campaign has had a Facebook and Twitter page since its inception, but campaign coordinators are now trying some different avenues.
On April 4, the STOP Sports Injuries campaign hosted its first ever tweetchat, which was hosted by Dr. David Geier. People from all over the country participated in the hour-long discussion about overuse inuries. Some topics included nutrition and hydration, education for parents and coaches, tips on preventing kids from playing through pain, and terrific ideas related to single-sport specialization. A summary of the chat is available online.
With the success of the first chat, AOSSM and STOP Sports Injuries plan to hold these tweetchats on a regular basis. Twitter has demonstrated to be a great forum for parents, coaches, media, healthcare providers, and athletes to express their views and ask questions. Our next tweetchat will address concussions in youth sports. Please join us on April 25 at 12:00 p.m. EST in what we expect to be a lively discussion. You can follow along and contribute by using the hashtag #SportsSafety.
On April 17 we hosted a webcast about youth sports injuries. Speakers included renowned sports medicine professionals, including James Andrews, MD; Peter Indelicato, MD; Christopher Harner, MD; Lyle Micheli, MD; and William Levine, MD. Each speaker dicsussed various injury prevention strategies for parents and coaches to use. The event created an opportunity for attendees to interact – live! – with these top team physicians. Check back soon on the AOSSM website to view the archived webcast.
What are you doing to help promote youth sports safety in your local community? Please join us in supporting Youth Sports Safety Month, and help keep kids in the game and out of the operating room.