Sports medicine

Sports medicine or sport medicine is an interdisciplinary subspecialty of medicine which deals with the treatment and preventive care of athletes, both amateur and professional. The team includes specialty physicians and surgeons, athletic trainers, physical therapists, coaches, other personnel, and, of course, the athlete.

Sports medicine today

Sports medicine has always been difficult to define because it is not a single specialty, but an area that involves health care professionals, researchers and educators from a wide variety of disciplines.

Related Topics:
Health care professional - Researcher - Educator

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Its function is not only curative and rehabilitative, but also preventative, which may actually be the most important one of all.

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Despite this wide scope, there has been a tendency for many to assume that sport-related problems are by default musculoskeletal and that sports medicine is an orthopaedic specialty.

Related Topics:
Musculoskeletal - Orthopaedic

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There is much more to sports medicine than just musculoskeletal diagnosis and treatment.

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Illness or injury in sport can be caused by many factors – from environmental to physiological and psychological.

Related Topics:
Environment - Physiological - Psychological

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Consequently, sports medicine can encompass an array of specialties - cardiology, orthopaedic surgery, biomechanics, traumatology, etc.

Related Topics:
Cardiology - Orthopaedic surgery - Biomechanics - Traumatology - Etc

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For example, heat, cold or altitude during training and competition can alter performance or may even be life threatening.

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What about the female triad of disordered eating, menstrual and bone density problems, and the pregnant or the aging athlete?

Related Topics:
Female triad - Pregnant

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In addition, the management of dermatological and endocrinological diseases and other such problems in the athlete demands expertise and sport-specific knowledge.

Related Topics:
Dermatological - Endocrinological

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The use of supplements, pharmacological or otherwise, and the topics of doping control and gender verification present complex moral, legal and health-related difficulties.

Related Topics:
Supplement - Doping control - Gender verification - Moral - Legal - Health

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Then there are the particular problems associated with international sporting events, such as the effects of travel, acclimatization and the attempt to balance an athlete's participation and her or his health.

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Much of this represents new fields of study where extensive clinical and basic science research is burgeoning.

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Finally, prevention is an area of increasingly specialized knowledge, interest and expertise.

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United States

The Sports Medicine Specialist is a leader of the sports medicine team, which also includes specialty physicians and surgeons, physiologists, athletic trainers, physical therapists, coaches, other personnel, and, of course, the athlete.

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They are physicians with a primary specialty in family practice, internal medicine, emergency medicine, pediatrics, or physical medicine and rehabilitation, most of whom obtain 1-2 years of additional training through accredited fellowship (subspecialty) programs in sports medicine. Physicians, who are board certified in family practice, internal medicine, emergency medicine, or pediatrics, are then eligible to take a subspecialty qualification examination in sports medicine. Additional forums, which add to the expertise of a Sports Medicine Specialist, include continuing education in sports medicine, and membership and participation in sports medicine societies.

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Sports medicine has been a recognized subspecialty by the American Board of Medical Specialties since 1989. Currently there are more than 70 sports medicine fellowships and approximately one thousand certified Sports Medicine Specialists in the United States.

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