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COVID-19 and the Biomechanics community

Although this is not the primary goal of this report, I consider it important to say a few words about the sanitary condition of Latin America and its impacts on biomechanics development. The pandemic is still showing us its worst face in the different countries from Latin America. The vaccination programs are highly variable among the nations, and teaching and research are still significantly compromised for most of them. Research is compromised by remote teaching, the limitations to develop face-to-face activities, and the critical budget cuts imposed by the governments and research agencies. It is also important to note the pandemic hits stronger the people with lower economic conditions, representing most of the people in countries from Latin America, and has a devastating effect on education. We have no clear idea about what is going on in the next few months and years as many projects are stopped and significantly delayed. Still, I am sure that the support of ISB members from places in better conditions will be fundamental to help the biomechanics community from Latin America and other economically developing countries to recovery. Stay open for connections, support and mentor students. Whenever possible, promote hybrid events that will permit people from these countries to participate, and together we will go through this. The pandemic is creating a considerable gap between economies, people, research, and development. To overcome this condition will require much more than being able to travel and attending face-to-face conferences. We need a plan to fight the gaps being created and still strong as an international society.

Latin American Meeting of Biomechanics

Since the XVII Brazilian Congress of Biomechanics in 2017, there is a continuous effort from members of Latin America to establish a regular agenda for the "Latin American Meeting of Biomechanics." The meeting has happened in Brazil so far, and it is time to go beyond Brazilian borders. To make it possible, a group of around 50 people initially coordinated by Joel Alvarez-Ruf and Felipe P Carpes and including lecturers, professors, representative students from Universities of the different Latin American countries, and also representants from the community and industry meet virtually to discuss the strategies to leverage the development of this meeting as an opportunity to establish networks and create opportunities for biomechanics researchers in Latin America. This meeting has approved that after the III Edition in Brazil, the IV Edition will happen in Chile, and there will be a regular flow for institutions willing to promote editions of the meeting, following some specific guidelines concerning the format and the goals of the meeting. We strongly believe that this initiative can promote profound advances to biomechanics in Latin America, and we hope to have the support of the ISB community.

The III Latin American Meeting of Biomechanics will be part of the XIX Brazilian Congress of Biomechanics. 

XIX Brazilian Congress of Biomechanics

The XIX Brazilian Congress of Biomechanics will happen only next September 13-17. We invite you all to join us: www.cbb2021.com.br. The program of the congress has 41 speakers confirmed from all over the world, including Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, United States, Canada, French, United Kingdom, South Africa, and Belgium. The congress program includes but is not limited to 13 tutorials, 10 keynote lectures, 3 round tables, the 13th Symposium on Motor Control and Biomechanics by the Motor Control Group ISB, the III Latin American Meeting of Biomechanics, live oral presentations, video-abstract sessions in addition to the general assembly of the Brazilian Society of Biomechanics and cultural presentations. The bests abstract will be candidate for several scientific prizes, including the Walter Herzog Undergraduate Research Award. We would like to acknowledge the support of APD Motion, the diamond sponsor of the conference.

Abstracts can be submitted by June 30.

i-FAB 2021

The i-FAB 2021 was a success. I would like to share with the ISB members a message from Professor Isabel Sacco, from the University of São Paulo, Brazil, the chair of the conference.

We would like to share with the ISB community the activities developed at the International Foot & Ankle Biomechanics Meeting 2021 (i-FAB 2021), organized by the Brazilian Society of Biomechanics, in conjunction with the i-FAB steering Committee, Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo, Laboratory Biomechanics of Human Movement and Posture and by the Federal University of São Carlos.

The i-FAB 2021 was a four-day scientific program with a multidisciplinary virtual scientific agenda and full of presentations with international and national guests and speakers. The congress took place online for the first time in its 7th edition, and its program consisted of 5 international lectures, 2 special sessions on Diabetic Foot and Weight-Bearing CT, 18 oral sessions with 112 scientific papers, and a poster session with 56 works that were available throughout the event. The focus of the presentations were topics related to Footwear / Orthotics, Sports, Physiotherapy / Rehabilitation, Clinical Biomechanics, Foot-Ankle Modeling, Orthopedics, and Surgery.

The keynotes were from Madhusudhan Venkadesan (Yale University, USA) about "Evolution of Human Foot and It's Relation to Walk and Running Gait," Irene Davis (Harvard Medical School, USA) about "The Foot Core Paradigm:  Let's Think Differently about the Foot," Michael Rainbow (Queen's University, Canadá) about "Investigation of Human Foot Function Using Approaches in Imaging and Musculoskeletal Modeling," Toni Arndt (Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, President of the ISB) about "What's happening in my Achilles tendon? The effects of running in different footwear", Cesar de Cesar Netto (University of Iowa, USA), about "The Collapsing Foot: Challenges in Diagnosis & Treatment & The Role of the Weight-Bearing CT."

The congress featured two pre-congress activities on April 11: the ISB MOTOR CONTROL TECHNICAL GROUP SYMPOSIUM, which included internationally renowned speakers that presented their work on motor control principles and approaches focusing on the biomechanics of the foot and ankle for a variety of applications, including sports medicine, rehabilitation, kinesiology, modeling and more. And a Short Course about GAIT RETRAINING FOR RUNNING INJURIES: FOCUS ON THE FOOT by Professor Irene Davis from Harvard Medical School.

The congress brought together approximately 650 delegates from 37 countries, which was a record compared to previous editions.

To expand international and national dissemination among those interested in the areas of Biomechanics, orthopedics, foot-ankle biomechanics, we rely on the partnership of scientific and professional societies that have many members in their community: AOFAS, ISB, FSB, ABTEPE, SBOT.

For the online event, an exclusive interactive platform was developed for i-FAB 2021 (https://ifab2021.neopix.online/en/login) in which participants could browse between sessions, interact with speakers, sponsors, and attendees via chat, audio, and email with each other, access posters, view the entire congress schedule and receive notifications in real-time.

The event promoted an excellent interface with professionals in the biomechanics of the foot and ankle, orthopedics, and rehabilitation, including academics, physicians, podiatrists, surgeons, engineers, physical education professionals, physiotherapists, and other health professionals, as well as professionals related to the footwear, insoles/orthotics, and surgical equipment. All professionals and students directly or indirectly involved in the topics contributed to the depth of the discussions during the congress. 

The event also distributed two awards for the best papers presented orally.

The entire program will be available for 90 days on demand to those registered for the congress, and the Book of Abstracts is available on the I-FAB 2021 website (https://www.i-fab2021.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04 /ifab2021_bookabstracts_site.pdf) and on the website of the Brazilian Society of Biomechanics (https://bsb.org.br/).

The i-Fab 2021 was a great opportunity to develop a truly multidisciplinary approach to address the challenges that the experimental and computational biomechanics of the foot-ankle represents - FABMAN - Foot and Ankle Biomechanics Multidisciplinary ActioN!

We believe that I-FAB 2021 was a highly successful event and look forward to the next I-FAB 2023 in France.