The Health & Performance Meetings provide a forum for the NBA’s health and performance staff to engage on varied topics currently at the forefront of athlete health and performance.
This year’s topics include:
Tendon Health: Diagnostic Imaging Tools and Techniques
While health and performance professionals in professional sport are accustomed to treating tendinopathies, these common injuries that affect basketball players of all ages can still be challenging to classify. Among the most challenging aspects of the injury is the difficulty of truly analyzing or quantifying tendon health in elite athlete populations. This panel will discuss different approaches for assessing tendon health using diagnostic imaging and other evaluative techniques and tools.
Shared Practices on Effective Communication in Addressing Health and Performance Matters
Effective communication is critically important in implementing and maintaining a world-class health and performance environment. Health and performance personnel are often tasked with managing second opinion evaluations, players’ personal health and wellness teams, ever-expanding staffs and specializations, and a host of other responsibilities that require effective and timely communication. This panel will discuss challenges in, and best practices for, cross-organizational communication, including health and performance staffs, athletes, coaches, agents, and front office personnel.
Understanding Pain Mechanisms: Physical, Psychological, and Sociocultural Considerations
Increased understanding about pain among players, coaches, front office personnel, and others within an elite sport environment can enhance care. Equally important is the ability to distill complex science into comprehensible and clinically meaningful information for the athlete and health and performance staff to reduce injury burden and optimize performance. This panel will provide a review of the physiology and psychology of pain, the contextual factors that impact the pain experience, and the skills to enable healthcare professionals to better understand, communicate with, and provide higher quality care to the injured athlete with enhanced communication and understanding.
‘Through the Stigma’: Addressing mental health and hesitation around utilization of services with individuals and different cultural groups
This panel will consider methods to increase access to mental health related services and resources for individuals who may be cautious to engage due to certain societal or cultural stigmas associated with mental health. The panelists will discuss how to address resistance and encourage utilization of mental health and performance resources among players and other team personnel. The panel will also identify some common cultural considerations for all stakeholders to be aware of.
Orthobiologics: Treating Acute Injuries & Chronic Conditions in Sport
Biological augmentation and regenerative medicine has seen significant growth over the past several years in many facets of health care, including sports medicine. Practitioners are exploring more holistic approaches to regenerative medicine for pain management and treatment for orthopedic injuries including platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections, bone marrow stem cells, and use of other biologic substances. This panel will dive into some of the latest orthobiologic advancements in athlete care and discuss the current scientific level of evidence, efficacy, and indications for such therapies.
Future of AI in Professional Athlete Health and Performance
AI is continuing to transform data interpretation and management across all industries. As access to health and performance data continues to grow, organizations are turning their attention to technical advancements in healthcare data. This panel will explore how sport industry leaders are creating AI and technical innovations in medicine to shape athletes’ medical care experiences. From injury prevention and recovery to general wellbeing, the panelists will discuss how AI is optimizing performance health across the globe.
Ethics and Professionalism in Professional Athlete Medical Care
The intricacies of balancing patient privacy and patient-centered care in professional sport can be challenging. Communication and ethical considerations for medical management and decision making can be difficult to navigate. This panel invites medical experts and other team personnel to discuss approaches to ensuring ethical care practices across the NBA.
Updates on Concussion Evaluation and Management
This panel will discuss the latest developments in concussion evaluation and management, relevant updates in the NBA Concussion Program, and other broad-spectrum observations in concussion management across elite athlete populations.
With special thanks to our Program Planning Committee members from the NBAPA (Physicians Association), NBATA (Athletic Trainers Association), NBSCA (Strength and Conditioning Association), and the NBPA (Players Association).