Beyond Structure & Function – A Shared Language of Care
Sport & Exercise Medicine Switzerland (SEMS) and the Swiss Sports Physiotherapy Association (SSPA) held their second annual congress (after the 2018 inaugural edition) together on October 30th and 31st, 2025 in Lausanne. Our two societies joined forces to showcase a truly international conference around the topic “Structure & Function” with a stellar speaker line-up, including keynotes from Caroline Bolling, Katrin Grävare Silbernagel, Rowena Johnson, Peter O’Sullivan, and Karim Khan.
The exciting two-day programme covered a variety of topics ranging from injury prevention, diagnostics, non-operative and operative management, rehabilitation, return to performance and long-term health: relive brilliant presentations and animated discussions on the SSPA YouTube channel (sportfisioswiss, scan the QR code). We extend our gratitude to the boards of both our societies for their collaborative vision, and to our fellow members of the Congress Scientific Committee: for SSPA, Nicolas Mathieu and Suzanne Gard, and for SEMS, Nathalie Wenger and Philippe Tscholl.
Lausanne, the Olympic Capital, is a place where people of sports come together. We brought the people in health care to showcase the excellent collaboration between our two professions, with one aim in mind: bringing better care to athletes and people who are in need of health to perform at their best, be it on the athletic field or in their daily lives. We always strive to deliver high-level care, not only for our top athletes in Switzerland, but also to every patient that knocks on the doors of our members. Our conference speakers highlighted the many challenges we face when we aim high: it starts with a shared philosophy of what caring for people is, a common “language” that facilitates discussions and decisions and efficient systems to give life to this vision. The language here is not simply the words we speak in German, French, Italian or Romansh, but rather the meaning and ideas we share, the way we interpret and explain our findings and our recommendations. It goes from diagnosing an issue to guiding the patient-athlete on their path to health and performance. This is what teamwork is about. In Switzerland, we have that additional challenge of 4 different national languages to overcome. Whilst we may not understand every word from the other languages, we will always understand the meaning if we share the sound principles that underly our philosophy of care.
This was the spirit that animated Structure & Function 2025. Over two days, the conference navigated the space between the poles of that pendulum—from structure to function, from pathology to person. Peter O’Sullivan’s opening keynote set the tone, tracing the recovery path from non-specific chronic low back pain in the athlete and laying bare the many pitfalls a fragmented system can create: the language of minor structural findings inflated into diagnoses that harm through nocebo alone, the inefficiencies of siloed care that leave patients cycling through specialists without ever finding coherence. Caroline Bolling brought the conference full circle with a closing keynote that offered a quietly powerful reorientation: the way we approach care is ultimately not about what we believe or what we know—it is about them. The athletes. The patients. Our role is to meet them where they are, to understand their expectations and beliefs, and to walk alongside them as they shape their path in their own context.
In this issue, we have chosen to showcase some of the key presentations from the conference. You will find articles which summarize the talks, along with the main references the speakers highlighted. In addition, we congratulate again the winners of the various awards handed on stage in Lausanne.
For those who were able to attend, we hope you left with more than new knowledge — we hope you felt the energy of a community that is more than the sum of its parts. The friendships renewed and the ones freshly forged over these days are not incidental to our work; they are its very foundation. Excellence in care starts with caring for each other. Keep up the exceptional work.
Boris Gojanovic, SEMS President
Mario Bizzini, SSPA Vice-president
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