Canadian Climbing Medicine Symposium 2023
Canadian Climbing Medicine Symposium 2023 Squamish, BC Canada
The Canadian Climbing Medicine Symposium is one of the first Climbing Medicine focused conferences in the world. The brain child of Dr. Yassar El Sheikh, it began in 2017 in Toronto Canada. That first conference was small, maybe 30 people in the room total. Being the first Climbing Medicine focused conference in North America, I felt it was my duty to try to present my approach to treating climbers and get the feedback of the best minds in this extremely small field of expertise. At the time, there was very little research or evidence for how to conservatively treat or even evaluate climbing finger injuries. I was a fairly new therapist and was still dialing down how to take all the knowledge I had gained from PT school and apply it to this very specialized and under-researched field of medicine: Climbing. The A2 pulley seemed the best place to begin. I had been doing literature reviews from areas like biomechanics, anatomy and physiology, pathology, as well as climbing specific research and was trying to figure out how to evaluate progress in climbing finger injuries. I kept spreadsheets of measurements, weights, climbing levels, mechanisms of injury, various treatments (I was trying out a lot of ideas back then). And finally a pattern emerged. It was this pattern that I presented at the first Medical Symposium. I saw it as an opportunity to present to the founders, mostly orthopedic surgeons, how I hypothesized I could use their research as a physical therapist to treat climbers conservatively (Without procedural intervention). I was very nervous to present to this group of passionate minds. When I finished my discussion, a lively Q&A ensued that went well beyond the allotted time. But it was this experience that led to the eventual publication of “A potential classification schema and treatment approach for A2 flexor pulley strains” published in The Journal of Hand Therapy. I have had the pleasure of speaking at every symposium since it’s inception.
Canadian Climbing Medicine Symposium 2017
This year I had the honor of giving two lectures.
Evaluation and Treatment of A2 Flexor Pulley Strains
and
Anatomy of a Heel Hook
It was wonderful to get to teach hands on how to perform the tests involved in the schema. I know from experience that when you first start working with fingers it feels a bit difficult and awkward but the best way to get better is to practice and that was the intention of my lecture, to help practitioners actually use the schema. I look forward to teaching in a smaller more intimate setting in the future as well.
The second lecture was pure enjoyment. Talking anatomy and biomechanics, looking at movement and moving. It was just a joy and great to get the audience involved as well. I think everyone had a good laugh. Can’t wait to do it again!!!
More than lecturing it’s the collaborations and discussion that happen during this event. They last way beyond the time parameters of the event and give me fuel for future endeavors as well as refresh my mind with ideas. I truly love this community and am so grateful to get to be a part of it.