Sports Medicine Physician

Sports can be a fun energy release, a competitive activity, or a painful experience. Amateur and Professional Athletes alike suffer from myriad ailments—from tennis elbow to blown out anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Luckily, there is such a field as sports medicine, which is a specialized field within medicine that focuses on these types of sports-related physical injuries.

Whether they work in a clinic or accept a staff position with a professional sports team, Sports Medicine Physicians have patients who all have one thing in common: injury stemming from sports. This might have been caused by repetitive motion, hard impact, a rough landing, or a movement that damaged the working parts of the body. In other words, Sports Medicine Physicians’ patients pull, tweak, rip, tear, break, strain, damage, fracture, and dislocate joints, muscles, tendons, and bones in the course of their sports activities.

So, as a Sports Medicine Physician, you order tests, perform exams, ask questions, and diagnose the problem. With that information, you come up with a treatment plan. This can take many shapes. The injury might require short-term attention, such as ice, heat, elevation, or rest. Or, it might need long-term care, such as surgery, a cast, physical therapy, cortisone shots, or other treatments. In addition to these treatments, you offer pain management advise and prescription medications.

While you’re always available for your injured patients, preventative medicine is also a key component of your job. You educate and inform Athletes about common injuries related to sports, and encourage them to practice safety techniques, such as wearing proper gear, using braces, and doing the most effective warmups.