Looking Back

I tend to spend the majority of my free time looking to the future, but as the end of 2021 draws near, I think it’s worth taking a look back at the past 12 months. Putting the past into proper perspective seems to help focus our future. While the pandemic has had a negative effect on our lives in many ways, for Sports Health it has been a very good year!

To summarize 2021: Authors have been busy, with manuscript submissions topping 600. The papers we published proved relevant, resulting in over 2 million downloads online. Our crowning achievement for the published material was an updated impact factor of 3.8, which reflects those papers published in 2018 and 2019. The impact factor tells the story of how often Sports Health articles are referenced by other authors: an accurate assessment of Sports Health’s relevance to current medical practice and published literature.

An additional metric worth noting is our most accessed online articles—people did a lot of reading in 2021! Of course, at the top of every clinician’s mind was COVID-19. The coronavirus effect on athletes was our most popular publication, with a consensus statement by the NFHS-AMSSM (National Federation of State High School Associations–American Medical Society for Sports Medicine) titled, “Cardiopulmonary considerations for high school student-athletes during the COVID-19 pandemic: NFHS-AMSSM guidance statement.” ¹ Few consequences of the virus for young athletes are more worrisome than long-term cardiopulmonary compromise.

While it has been difficult not to consider the consequences of COVID-19 every day recently, head impacts in football, ⁶ symptomatic disc herniation, ² and hamstring injuries ⁷ continue to present challenges for Sports Health clinicians. Answers to some of these daunting issues were found in these top-accessed articles for 2021. The pandemic has not altered the effect of concussions, disc herniation, or soft tissue injuries on athletic populations, and these topics remain of interest to our readers.

One enjoyable task that the Sports Health editorial group takes on every year is the selection of the T. David Sisk Award winners. There are 3 categories for the awards: best clinical review, best original research manuscript, and best international paper. Dr Sisk was very instrumental in bringing Sports Health to fruition and was firmly supportive of the intent to publish a multidisciplinary journal with our professional collaborators: American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM), National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA), and American Academy of Sports Physical Therapy (AASPT). His memory lives on through these awards.

The 2021 Sisk Award winners focused on varied but very interesting topics. Brett Toresdahl, MD, won the award for best original research with “A randomized study of a strength training program to prevent injuries in runners of the New York City Marathon.” ⁴ This study demonstrated the value of resistance training for those who would likely much rather run than train with weights. While most clinicians believe that stronger runners would fare better, this study gave objective proof for sending runners to the gym.

Meredith Turner, MD, provided the best clinical review with “The role of resistance training dosing on pain and physical function in individuals with knee osteoarthritis: a systematic review.” ⁵ For all of us senior folk, especially former contact athletes, this is highly valuable guidance on how to maximize the function of deteriorating synovial joints. No doubt, this is a tremendously valuable contribution to geriatric medical care!

In the international paper category, Özge Tahran, PT, MSc, was awarded for the publication titled “Effects of modified posterior shoulder stretching exercises on shoulder mobility, pain, and dysfunction in patients with sub acromial impingement syndrome.” ³ This paper demonstrates the connection between shoulder function and pain, emphasizing the need for properly balancing exercises for shoulder health.

From my perspective, these 3 Sisk Award winners demonstrate the breadth, depth, and focus of Sports Health. We not only emphasize the care of the athlete but also include the important components for care of all active individuals, including the older population and those afflicted with degenerative disease.

I credit Sports Health’s progress to our authors, readers, reviewers, and Editorial Board. For your commitment to advancing the medical science in the Sports Health journal—thank you! Our goal of providing a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to the care of the athlete and active people continues to grow! This has been our publishing goal since the inception of the journal in 2008.

So, as we review the metrics and accomplishments of the Sports Health journal for 2021, we look forward to 2022 with great anticipation. Hopefully, we will realize a resolution to the strains of the pandemic on daily life, athletic activity, and mental health. Be on the lookout for the January/February 2022 issue: It’s a special feature dedicated to the training and conditioning of the adolescent athlete.

We look forward to strengthening the collaborative bonds with our partner societies, AMSSM, NATA, and AASPT, and hope to improve the health of athletes and all physically active people. Best wishes for 2022!

—Edward M. Wojtys, MD
Editor-in-Chief