Authentic Expertise in Sport, Medicine and Health

The „Sports, Medicine and Health Summit“ will be led for the first time in 2025 by a duo of congress presidents representing Internal Medicine/Physiology and Orthopedics/Trauma Surgery. What unites them is a shared passion for sports and physical activity in medicine. The broad scope of sports medicine as an interdisciplinary field is what makes it so unique and important – especially in times of increasing physical inactivity, particularly among children and adolescents, associated weight gain, and the aging population in many countries.

The Summit presents current knowledge from various areas of sports medicine and related fields, covering everything from fundamental research to clinical practice. A central focus of the Summit is the translation of current scientific findings into medical practice and broader society. This is achieved through a variety of formats, including keynote lectures, scientific symposia, and submitted contributions presented as oral presentations, short talks with posters, or posters.

In the area of continuing education, the emphasis is on delivering practical, applicable knowledge. In the event segment, the goal is to make knowledge from sports, medicine, and health accessible to a broader public audience.

The integration of initiatives such as “Exercise is Medicine” and the “Global Alliance” not only lends the Summit international visibility but also brings global expertise into the congress. The inclusion of additional professional societies alongside the DGSP in the program allows the Summit to fully reflect its theme of “Sports, Medicine and Health” across a wide spectrum.
Content-wise, the Summit offers up-to-date topics presented by leading experts from around the world. A look at the keynotes and scientific symposia clearly shows which issues are currently shaping the fields of sports medicine and sports science.

Recent findings on physical activity and exercise in cancer care show that physical activity is not only important for the primary prevention of cancer, but also plays a crucial role in the rehabilitation of cancer patients – and its benefits go well beyond improving quality of life.

Notably, physical activity can enhance quality of life even in advanced stages of cancer, as demonstrated by a recently published Europe-wide clinical study (2). These results highlight the importance of integrating structured physical activity into oncology care at all stages of the disease.

Exercise is increasingly recognized as a powerful, evidence-based supportive therapy that can help manage treatment side effects, maintain physical function, and improve both physical and psychological well-being – even when a cure is no longer possible.

In addition to rehabilitation, which supports patients in their recovery after treatment, there is growing focus on the importance of optimal preparation for therapy, particularly surgical treatment. It is becoming increasingly clear that prehabilitation can positively influence the perioperative and postoperative course and improve the foundation for successful rehabilitation.

A keynote presentation will explore what such a prehabilitation program can look like and which measures – beyond targeted physical training – are necessary. The lecture will also highlight the existing need for further research in this area (1).

Another compelling topic addressed in the keynotes is the issue of Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs) – a condition that occurs not only in elite sports. The keynote will explore how REDs can be identified, what long-term consequences it may have, and how it can be prevented and treated (4).

Changes in metabolism due to physical activity and exercise also have molecular and cellular consequences for the body. One of the keynotes will focus on the impact of physical activity on tryptophan metabolism and the molecular processes that influence, among other things, the immune system and the brain. By understanding these molecular mechanisms, therapeutic approaches can be developed that help counteract immunological and neurological diseases through targeted physical training in practice.

Targeted personalized physical training presents a significant opportunity. However, this opportunity also requires control mechanisms that range from individual diagnostics to personalized training. The rapid development in the field of wearable sensors and the integration of data through artificial intelligence – capable of capturing and processing not only movement data but also physiological and biological parameters in real-time under various load conditions—opens up great potential in the field of personalized sports and movement therapy and is likely to have a lasting impact on healthcare (5). This topic will therefore be addressed in a keynote and further presentations at the Summit.

In addition to these highlights, the Summit will also address other current topics that extend beyond sports medicine. The demands generated by an aging society in the field of physical activity, and the opportunities physical activity offers for maintaining health and preventing chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and sarcopenia, will be highlighted in numerous symposia and explained in the continuing education section for practical application.

An important area of focus will be the influence of the menstrual cycle on trainability and the development of cycle-based training.

The latest findings on the impact of physical activity/exercise on cardiovascular and neurological diseases will take up significant space in both the scientific and continuing education programs.

Pediatric sports medicine will receive extensive coverage, particularly in the continuing education section.
The Summit also thrives on the broad inclusion of additional professional societies that, in adjacent fields to sports medicine, are concerned with health and sports in different societal groups. The program will thus be supplemented with topics from the fields of nutrition science, neurology, psychology, environmental medicine, and orthopedics/traumatology.

Sports medicine and sports science aspects related to high-performance sports will not be overlooked in the program, and will be thoroughly addressed in both the scientific and continuing education sections, as well as presented to the public in the event program.

The Summit provides a comprehensive and scientifically grounded overview of current findings from sports, medicine, and health that are essential for maintaining a physically active and healthy society across the entire lifespan. In this context, the growing possibilities of digital health management, which pave the way for personalized prevention, therapy, and rehabilitation through physical activity, play an important role.