Greetings and Happy December!

Happy Holidays everyone. Hope everyone had a fun and filling Thanksgiving. The month of December brings us even more things to celebrate, more holidays, time to spend with friends and families, AND sports! NCAA Football will be winding down with bowl season and I am sure there will be lots of contested family debates over the college football playoffs. NCAA Basketball is now in full swing along with the NFL, NHL, and NBA – it's an awesome time to be a sports fan.   

The December issue is loaded with timely information that you can use! Thanks to M. Alison Brooks, MD, MPH, for assembling the Special Populations section found in this issue and special thanks to Yannis P. Pitsiladis, MMedSci, PhD and Fabio Pigozzi, MD, PhD for recruiting and managing the annual FIMS special section also in this issue.

The special populations articles cover care of the transgender athlete, safeguarding the child and adolescent athlete, increasing wellness through physical activity in children with chronic disease and disability, and participation and injury in martial arts. There is a fascinating case report in this edition, about an adolescent pitcher recovering from a partial ulnar collateral ligament tear after platelet-rich plasma, don't miss it.  The safeguarding of athletes is very important in light of some recent events in the past year and it is extremely important that as a profession we police ourselves and keep the well-being of athletes' front and center in our daily practices.

Additionally, this month contains our special FIMS section.  Our international colleagues cover a wide variety of topics; mesenchymal stem cell therapy in osteoarthritis and regenerative medicine, effects of ketone bodies on endurance exercise, the use of the TRH Stimulation Test to assess long term changes of thyroid function in an Olympic athlete, the performance effects of microdose rHuEpo administration and CO-rebreathing, the fluidity of gender and implications for the biology of inclusion for transgender and intersex athletes, the effect of exercise training on autonomic cardiovascular regulation, and the integration of wearable sensors into competitive sports with particular focus on running mechanics.  This international collaboration and sharing of ideas is a great partnership and opportunity for both ACSM and FIMS.

Don't miss the Scanning Sports Medicine column, which covers the latest clinical research published by ACSM and the CAQ Review that looks at lower extremity rehabilitation.

This edition brings to a close to my first year as the editor-in-chief, it has been an awesome privilege and learning experience.  Here's to making 2019 even better!

Sincerely,
Shawn

Shawn F. Kane, MD, FACSM
Editor-in-Chief