Sports Medicine Today
Sports medicine is a challenging role to define because it is not a single specialty. Rather, it involves healthcare professionals, researchers, and educators from a wide variety of disciplines. Sports medicine serves the functions of being curative, rehabilitative, as well as preventative.

Sport-related problems are most commonly musculoskeletal; and therefore, sports medicine is predominantly an orthopaedic specialty even though it actually covers a wide scope of specialties. As there is more to sports medicine than just musculoskeletal concerns (such as environmental, physiological, and psychological factors), sports medicine can encompass an array of specialties, including cardiology, pulmonology, orthopaedic surgery, exercise physiology, biomechanics, and traumatology.

Team physicians are commonly sought from the orthopaedic profession due to their musculoskeletal knowledge and ability to diagnose and treat common sports injuries. Practices that specialize in treatment, care, and rehabilitation of athletes are referred to as sports medicine practices.

United States Sports Medicine
The sports medicine team is commonly led by the sports medicine specialist (usually an orthopaedist or a primary-care sports medicine specialist). It also includes physician and surgeon specialists, physiologists, athletic trainers, physical therapists, coaches, other miscellaneous personnel, and the athlete.

Licensed physicians who wish to be sports medicine specialists generally obtain one or two years of additional training through accredited fellowship (subspecialty) programs in sports medicine. They are then eligible to take a subspecialty qualification examination in sports medicine. Continuing education in sports medicine and membership and participation in sports medicine societies adds to the expertise of a sports medicine specialist.

Since 1989, sports medicine has been a recognized subspecialty of the American Board of Medical Specialties. The United States currently boasts more than 70 sports medicine fellowships and approximately one thousand certified Sports Medicine Specialists.

Sports Medicine's Future
There is a strong belief that sports medicine will make its most significant future contributions in the area of prevention. Sports medicine specialists may suggest modifications in training techniques, equipment, sports venues and rules, based on outcomes of meaningful research. Under this advisement, athletic participation and performance may increase and injuries and down-time can potentially decrease.

Both athletes and non-athletes who wish to live an active lifestyle benefit from the advice and care of sports medicine specialists. The advances and expertise of the sports medicine specialist will be extremely important to the general population's ability to stay active throughout their lifetime. Through their continued growth and development, the sports medicine specialist will be instrumental in raising the awareness of the benefits of physical activity.

© 2008 PresentingHealth.com