NATA Now

By Jason Cates ATC, LAT 
NATA Secondary School Athletic Trainers' Committee
District Six Representative

By Dale Grooms, ATC
NATA Secondary School Athletic Trainers' Committee
District Four Representative 

Dr. Zubin Damania felt a call to medicine—as well as a call to the standup stage. The doctor-comedian, known as ZDoggMD, shared his laugh-inducing journey from frustrated internist to YouTube sensation and proponent of “Health 3.0” during the 2017 NATA Keynote sponsored by Cramer Wednesday, June 28, in the George R. Brown Convention Center.

Damania grew up on the East Coast until his parents, both in the medical field and immigrants from India, moved the family to Clovis, California, a rural community very different from his previous home.

The July NATA News featured an article about new NATA board members Katie Walsh Flanagan, EdD, ATC, LAT, representing District Three, and Tony Fitzpatrick, MA, ATC, LAT, representing District Ten. In it, they discussed why they wanted to serve on the NATA Board of Directors, why volunteerism is important to them and what drew them to the athletic training profession.

By Beth Sitzler

As Ron Courson, ATC, PT, NRAEMT, Director of Sports Medicine with the University of Georgia Athletic Association, took to the stage to give the 2017 NATA Political Action Committee Breakfast keynote address Tuesday, June 27, the room fell silent, captivated by his message of purpose and inspiration.

NATA will recognize its national award winners during the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at 2 p.m. Wednesday, June 28, in George R. Brown Convention Center Hall C. Throughout the 68th NATA Clinical Symposia & AT Expo, NATA and its many committees have honored the hard work and dedicated of members who have made a lasting contribution to the profession.

Today’s NATA convention schedule is packed with content! From BOC-approved EBP programing to the keynote presentation, get ready for a day full of events in Hall C of the George R. Brown Convention Center.

The EBP programing, “Leaving the Lab and Stepping onto the Battlefield: Using 15 Years of Injury Prevention Research in the U.S. Military to Guide the Future,” is from 11:45 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. in the George R. Brown Convention Center Hall C. The session, moderated by Darin Padua, PhD, ATC, will feature presentations related to athletic training in the military, including:

During the 68th NATA Clinical Symposia & AT Expo Tuesday, June 27, leading health care experts participated in a national press conference, “Reducing Your Risk from Osteoarthritis: What You Can Do. What the Research Says,” and unveiled new research from a special osteoarthritis-themed issue of the Journal of Athletic Training, which is now available online.

What do “The Devil Wears Prada” and “Elf” have to do with the physician practice setting? Not much to the uninitiated observer. However, in one of the sessions at Monday’s Pre-Conference Career Workshops, those movies were used to help attendees understand what it can be like to work in the physician practice setting.

After months of planning and preparation, the 68th NATA Clinical Symposia & AT Expo kicked off Monday, June 26, with a tailgate-themed Welcome Reception at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston.

Throughout the next four days of convention programming, NATA 2017 attendees have much to look forward to—386 events, to be exact.