Swiss Sports Physiotherapy Association news

The Swiss Sports Physiotherapy Association (SSPA) will hold its 23rd annual conference together with the Sport & Exercise Medicine Switzerland (SEMS) on 30 October 2025–31 October 2025 in Lausanne. This is the second time since 2018 that the two societies will join forces to showcase a truly international conference around the topic ‘Structure and Function’. Among the confirmed speakers for this event: Jane Thornton, Karim Khan, Ewa Roos, Peter O’Sullivan, Fiona Wilson, Carles Pedret, Karin Gravare Silbernagel, Yannis Pitsiladis, Rod Whiteley and many others.

You’ll find more information about this stellar event on the conference website (https://sems.ch/news/artikel/save-the-date) and in the dedicated BJSM-SEMS issue later this fall.

Meanwhile, we’re simply thrilled to start the preparations towards the 2026 World Congress of Sports Physical Therapy (WCSPT) in Bern, capital of Switzerland and home of our annual event since 2005. Back in 2015, the SSPA organised the first WCSPT in cooperation with the International Federation of Sports Physical Therapy (IFSPT). This event attracted over 800 participants from 34 countries worldwide. In December 2026 (4 December–5 December), we’ll host the sixth WCSPT edition, thus perpetuating the original idea of providing an outstanding international conference combined with unique networking possibilities among sport physiotherapys (PTs) from all over the world. BJSM has always been a strong supporter of WCSPT, and we want to acknowledge here the key role played by former Editor-in-Chief Karim Khan in helping to organise the first WCSPT and facilitating the ‘return to sport’ (RTS) consensus meeting, which led to one of the milestone publications in sports PT and sports medicine of the last decade.1

IFSPT–WCSPT news

IFSPT (founded in 2000), a recognised specialty group of World Physiotherapy, is a worldwide Federation representing 40 national sports physical therapy organisations close to 50 000 members. 2026 will be an important year for IFSPT, not only for the sixth WCSPT, but also for the finalisation of the Erasmus+Cooperation Partnership Project ‘Higher education to improve competency in Sports Physiotherapy (‘Sports Comp’)’, a 3-year international project (2023–2026) involving five organisations: Jamk University of Applied Sciences (Finland), University of Tartu (Estonia), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium), University of Thessaly (Greece) and IFSPT.2 The development of the first Sports Competencies and Standards Document, almost 20 years ago, was one of the most important milestones of IFSPT. This long overdue update of the competencies is needed to expand the global role of the sport PT in today’s world and, therefore, aiming for excellence at both the educational and professional levels. Sports PT, as a profession and individually, needs to engage across learning types (technical, creative and contextual), in order to continuously improve expertise. This is key for sports PTs to successfully perform within the sporting community at all levels of sport.3

The global theme of the sixth WCSPT will be around the updated sports competencies, which comprise knowledge and skills required to give the best of care to athletes of all ages and all abilities, and to promote physical activity worldwide. The Scientific Program Committee, chaired by Mario Bizzini (SSPA), includes Andrea Mosler (Australia), Noe Mkumbuzi (UK, Zimbabwe), Caroline Bolling (Netherlands, Brasil), Mina Samukawa (Japan), Behnam Liaghat (Denmark) and Chris Napier (Canada). Reflecting the composition of this committee, the projected panel of international speakers will represent all continents and showcase equity, diversity and inclusivity.4 Besides a ‘classical’ 2 days conference programme, IFSPT is working also on a 1–2-day preconference course and on various activities in Bern, capital of world sports PT during the first week of December 2026.

In this 15th Swiss SPORTFISIO issue

This 15th Swiss Sports PT annual issue of BJSM includes contributions covering some of the most important topics in sport and exercise medicine. Let’s start with three relevant editorials in our clinical sports PT practice.

Hughes et al (see page 623) provide an update on the evidence-based recommendations for the design and publication of scientific data about blood flow restriction applications. Dixon et al (see page 625) reinforce the concept of the ‘postrehabilitation phase’ and how it is crucial to continuously develop such frameworks to match the evolving demands of elite/professional sport. O’Brian et al (see page 628) explore the potential value of accelerated rehabilitation after arthroscopic shoulder stabilisation, where more proactive, less conservative (shorter immobilisation time and earlier strengthening) protocols may help improve outcomes.

The consensus on the acute care of spine-injured Lacrosse athletes (see page 630) highlights the importance of sports emergency care knowledge and training among healthcare professionals (sports medicine doctors and PTs, among others). The ‘emergency action plan’, along with policy and procedure manuals, is a key element that should be in place, practised and rehearsed for all venues before hosting lacrosse or any other sport activities!

The original papers in this issue touch on some highly debated topics in our field. Kotsifaki et al (see page 677) break the ‘9 months wall’ for RTS after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction, showing that an earlier RTS did not increase the risk for a new ACL injury, provided that the athletes (males, in this paper) met defined discharge criteria. The RCT by Pringels et al (see page 640) tackles the challenging management of insertional Achilles tendinopathy: patients (both males and females included-!) had improved outcomes with a ‘low tendon compression rehabilitation’ (eg, limiting ankle dorsiflexion during exercise, eliminating calf stretching and incorporating heel lifts). The Copenhagen Hip and Groin Outcome Score (HAGOS) is one of the most researched and used patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) in hip/groin patients/athletes. The study by Christensen et al (see page 651) found that the original HAGOS—and the Oxford Hip Score—are not psychometrically valid, but the revised HAGOS scoring format is an appropriate PROM for patients with hip-abductor pathology.

Shah et al (see page 676) showed in a large prospective study that total hip replacement patients (males, females, mean age 68.5) with a high-intensity activity level participation do not have a greater risk of revision (or fractures) up to 10 years. The service spotlight by Shyh Poh Teo et al (see page 685) illustrates how a context-based physical health (PA) and strength programme (incorporating Muslim prayer movements) was successfully implemented among older people in Brunei: what an eye-opening PA initiative from this country in South-East Asia!

Vella et al (see page 659) present how a set of nine evidence-based (and actionable) mental health guidelines was developed for organised community sport in Australia. The importance of promotion and protection of mental health and well-being in community sport cannot be highlighted enough: Australia, while recognising the challenges of dissemination and implementation, is providing a strong example for national sports organisations and government bodies with this publication.

Finally, the ‘PhD Academy Award’ (see page 683) by Nikolaos I Liveris (University of Patras, Greece) leads us to a new approach investigating the complex interrelationships of risk factors affecting hamstring injuries.

Keep in touch!

We invite you to relive the first WCSPT, and as well all our conferences (since 2013) on our own YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMYW4Yv3IXeANv-uD3R0FYA), a free educational resource for the sports PT and medicine community. As always, keep track of the SSPA (@SportfisioSwiss) and BJSM (@BJSM_BMJ) via your favourite social media channel(s) and keep your member society abreast of what YOU want in your clinical sports medicine and PT career. That’s how you find out about terrific resources for sports clinicians, such as the newly launched ‘e-issues’ of BJSM (https://bjsm.bmj.com/pages/bjsm-e- editions/). They add to the normal 20 issues and 4 IOC-supported Injury Prevention and Health Protection issues.

Enjoy this Swiss issue of BJSM, keep safe and we really hope to catch you in person this year in Lausanne for the SEMS-SSPA conference (30 October–31 October), and next year at the new Bernexpo-Bern for the WCSPT, 4 December 2026–5 December 2026!