This weekend the American Medical Association will kick off its annual exercise in medical democracy.
The group's House of Delegates will meet in Chicago to vote on resolutions that range from a demand that private insurers pay doctors at least as much as Medicare does to a call for federal legislation affirming the right of doctors to talk about gun safety with patients.
Oh, and one other thing, the Illinois delegation is putting forward a asking the AMA to "support the designation of cheerleading as a sport."
Yep, you read that right. And the health logic is pretty straightforward, actually.
Cheerleading has become a competitive activity in its own right, and there's a considerable risk of serious injury, including concussion, spinal damage and broken bones.
So it ought to get the same attention to health consequences as other sports, including the training of coaches to minimize injury risks for cheerleaders, proponents say.
A from the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research found that "high school and college cheerleaders account for approximately two-thirds of the catastrophic injuries to female athletes."
The NCAA hasn't as a competitive sport. Last August, a federal appeals court that Quinnipiac College in Connecticut couldn't count cheerleading as a sport under Title IX as way to offset disbanding women's volleyball.
If the AMA delegates go along with the proposal, they'll be following in the footsteps of the pediatricians. Last October, The American Academy of Pediatrics to cheerleading injuries and giving the go-ahead to the sports label.
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