CARING FOR ATHLETES
Sports Medicine: A Team Approach
Until recently, the concept of sports medicine dealt strictly with the treatment of athletic injuries. Now the emphasis is shifting towards meeting athletes’ total health needs. Preparticipatory evaluations, injury prevention, performance enhancement programs and research are now integral parts of the sports medicine process. Utilizing sophisticated state of the art computerized tools and technology, today’s sports medicine specialist is not just one person but a team of scientists who each represent an important area of the athletes’ health and needs.
Unfortunately there is no regulatory agency that controls the use of the word “sports medicine.” All too often the consumer-athlete needs and desires sophisticated sports medicine technology only to receive traditional modes of care. Sports medicine’s “new look” boasts sports psychologists, biomechanists, nutritionists, physical therapists, dentists, exercise physiologists, sports trained physicians and surgeons and athletic trainers. The idea of the team approach is quite unique to our Western medical culture. The advent of using a team approach to care for athletes arose only after the United States Olympic teams were continuously beaten by small Eastern-block countries. The United States Olympic team sponsors, coaches and trainers looked to answer how could a country like East Germany with such a small population beat the United States teams so consistently. Soon the United States Olympic Team administrators recognized that to remain competitive reform was necessary. Now the United States Olympic training facilities, located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, utilize a true sports medicine team approach.
How about you, the recreational or high school athlete? We now know the United States Olympic athletes are properly cared for and thus have recently seen a resurgence of improved United States Olympic team performance.
You too should take advantage of the world’s most sophisticated technology that can predict potential injury before it occurs and that in the case of injury, allows the quickest and safest rehabilitation without worry of re-injury. The most important member of the sports medicine team is you!