The ninth Annual Scientific Conference of the Faculty of Sports and Exercise Medicine (Royal College of Physicians in Ireland and RCSI) took place from 21-22 September 2012 at RCSI. A number of international experts featured as keynote speakers over the two-day event, which was opened by former Irish boxer and former WBA and European super bantamweight champion, Bernard Dunne.

This year's thematic sessions were 'Fatigue failure of bone' on the Friday morning, and 'Overtraining and burnout' and short updates session on the Saturday morning. Oral presentations also took place on both afternoons along with parallel sessions in sports and exercise medicine, exercise science and physiology, trauma and orthopaedic surgery, and case series.

Keynote speakers at the meeting included Prof. David Taylor from TCD; Prof. Peter Brukner from Australia; Prof. Domhnall MacAuley from Belfast and Prof. Romain Meeusen from Belgium.

Honorary Fellowships of the Faculty of Sports and Exercise Medicine were awarded to Prof. Peter Brukner, world-renowned sports medicine clinician and researcher and David Hickey, Consultant Urologist in Beaumont Hospital and former GAA All-Star.

Dr Nick Mahony, Chairman of the Conference Organising Committee and Board Member of the Faculty of Sports and Exercise Medicine (RCPI and RCSI), said: "More than 170 healthcare professionals attended the conference this year and we received a record number of abstract submissions. In particular we would like to highlight the contribution that two clinical units made in their abstract submissions. Paul O'Grady's orthopaedic team (Mayo General Hospital and Sports Clinic West in Castlebar) and Professor John Ryan's Emergency Medicine team (St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin); both made substantial contributions in their abstract submissions and we look forward to further contributions in future meetings.