Travelling with elite teams: Top tips from Prav Mathema (Rugby Union)

Do you provide medical services for athletes or teams that travel nationally or internationally? Are you confident that your travel preparations cover every possible situation? Prav Mathema, the Head of Sports Medicine for the Welsh Rugby Union and physiotherapist to the British & Irish Lions Rugby Team, discusses his top tips for travelling with elite sports teams accrued from his years of experience. Your host is BJSM Senior Associate Editor Dr Liam West (@Liam_West). Related Reading: Derman, W. E. (2008). Medication use by Tea, South Africa during the XXVIIth Olympiad: A model for quantity estimation for multi-coded team events. South African Journal of Sports Medicine, 20(3), 78-84 Hadjichristodoulou, C., et al. (2005). Mass gathering preparedness: the experience of the Athens 2004 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Journal of Environmental Health, 67(9), 52-57 Herring, S. et al (2001). Sideline preparedness for the team physician: a consensus statement. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 33(5), 846-849 Herxheimer, A., & Petrie, K. J. (2002). Melatonin for the prevention and treatment of jet lag. Cochrane Database Systematic Review, 2, CD001520 Luks, A. M., et al. (2010). Wilderness, Medical Society consensus guidelines for the prevention and treatment of acute altitude sickness. Wilderness Environmental Medicine, 21, 146-155 Milne, C., & Shaw, M. (2008). Travelling to China for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 42, 321-326 Milne, C., Shaw, M. & Steinweg, J. (1999). Medical issues relating to the Sydney Olympic Games. Sports Medicine, 28, 287-298 Pipe, A. L. (2011). International travel and the elite athlete. Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine, 21, 62-66 Reilly, T. et al. (2007). Coping with jet-lag: A position statement for the European College of Sports Science. European Journal of Sport Science, 7(1), 1-7 Reilly, T., Waterhouse, J., & Edwards, B. (2005). Jet lag and air travel: Implications for performance. Clinics in Sports Medicine, 24, 367-380 Seto, C. K., Way, D., & O’Connor, N. (2005). Environmental illness in athletes. Clinical Sports Medicine, 24, 695-718 Shaw, M. T., & Leggat, P. A. (2000). Traveling to Australia for the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Journal of Travel Medicine, 7, 200-204 Shaw, M. T., Leggat, P. A., & Borwein, S. (2007). Travelling to China for the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic games. Travel Medicine and Infectious Diseases, 5, 365-373 Simon, L. M., & Rubin, A. L. (2008). Travelling with the Team. Current Sports Medicine Reports, 7, 138-143 Teichman, P. G., Donchin, Y., & Kot, R. J. (2007). International aeromedical evacuation. New England Journal of Medicine, 356, 262-270 Turbeville, S. D., Cowan, L. D., & Greenfield, R. A. (2006). Infectious disease outbreaks in competitive sports: a review of the literature. American Journal of Sports Medicine, 34, 1860-1865 Walters, A. (2000). Travel medicine advice to UK based international motor sport teams. Journal of Travel Medicine, 7, 267-274 Waterhouse, J., Reilly, T., & Atkinson, G. (1997). Jet-lag. Lancet, 350, 1611-1615 Waterhouse, J., Reilly, T., Atkinson, G., & Edwards, B. (2007). Jet lag: trends and coping strategies. Lancet, 369, 1117-1129 Young, M., Fricker, P., Maughan, R., (1998). The travelling athlete: issues relating to the Commonwealth Games, Malaysia, 1998. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 32, 77-81 BJSM App iTunes - itunes.apple.com/us/app/bjsm/id943071687?mt=8 Google Play - play.google.com/store/apps/detail…m.goodbarber.bjsm