Becoming a Collegiate Team Physician

[deleted600623]

Does anyone have any insight as to how to become a sports team physician? Is it all about connections? I find PM&R very interesting as a specialty and think it would be a great fit based on their training. Would you have to do a fellowship with a team? This might be a tough topic because it's not widely talked about but if anyone has any insight, that would be great! Thanks for the help!

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[MedicineN'Jazz]

Does anyone have any insight as to how to become a sports team physician? Is it all about connections? I find PM&R very interesting as a specialty and think it would be a great fit based on their training. Would you have to do a fellowship with a team? This might be a tough topic because it's not widely talked about but if anyone has any insight, that would be great! Thanks for the help!

This is actually plenty talked about. The general consensus is that you can do a residency in orthopaedics, ER, family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, or PM&R and then complete a 1 yr sports medicine fellowship. Depending upon your institution’s name/connections, as well as your individual resume, you would then proceed to become a “sports doc.”

Take this with a grain of salt though. I’ve only gotten this information from reading up on the subject (former student athlete). Others on here can probably give you more accurate data!

 

[FutureOncologist]

I will be applying to Sports Medicine Fellowships around the country in the next few months (PGY-2 IM resident currently.) Don't let my name confuse you: I had an interest in oncology when I made this account; now I'm totally sold on sports medicine and want to treat athletes and the general population that suffer from sports-related injuries. What I will comment on is IM-specific training programs. It is true; there are programs that take EM, FM, and even PM&R residents. But I can't comment on those per-se to help you out. I also cannot comment on the surgical fellowships offered after gen surg/ortho residencies.

I can't comment on every single fellowship but I can tell you most get their name from the D1 and professional sports teams they have fellows treat/follow to games. They also send you out to local high school and club sports programs. My medical school's fellowship program (non-surgical) sends its fellow to the D1 football, basketball, and baseball team throughout each respective season. On top of that, most programs will also have you rotate at outpatient, inpatient, VA centers, and so forth. This widely depends on:

1. what residency you trained in (EDIT: For example, IM-focused sports med vs. PM&R sports med vs. ortho surg sports med)
2. the home institution

Your fellowship is to train you on sports-related injuries and pathologies. You can/will rotate in SM rotations either as electives or required clerkships (1st year required for 1 month, 2nd year did an elective rotation.) That's where you should start networking. But fellowship will also allow you to make connections so you can (hopefully) find a job once you're out. Most programs, again, will help you with that in-that they will put you in connection with people that are looking for fellows to become potential partners. The programs I will apply to only take 1 fellow/year so you don't feel as if you're competing with a classmate to land a job once fellowship is over.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Feel free to PM me for any more questions!

P.S. don't go into PM&R unless you want to deal with more than just MSK injuries. There are a lot of other injuries (TBI's) and illnesses (MS for example) that you'll have to work with for residency. If that does interest you, then by all means, go for it

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I will be applying to Sports Medicine Fellowships around the country in the next few months (PGY-2 IM resident currently.) Don't let my name confuse you: I had an interest in oncology when I made this account; now I'm totally sold on sports medicine and want to treat athletes and the general population that suffer from sports-related injuries. What I will comment on is IM-specific training programs. It is true; there are programs that take EM, FM, and even PM&R residents. But I can't comment on those per-se to help you out. I also cannot comment on the surgical fellowships offered after gen surg/ortho residencies.

I can't comment on every single fellowship but I can tell you most get their name from the D1 and professional sports teams they have fellows treat/follow to games. They also send you out to local high school and club sports programs. My medical school's fellowship program (non-surgical) sends its fellow to the D1 football, basketball, and baseball team throughout each respective season. On top of that, most programs will also have you rotate at outpatient, inpatient, VA centers, and so forth. This widely depends on:

1. what residency you trained in
2. the home institution

Your fellowship is to train you on sports-related injuries and pathologies. You can/will rotate in SM rotations either as electives or required clerkships (1st year required for 1 month, 2nd year did an elective rotation.) That's where you should start networking. But fellowship will also allow you to make connections so you can (hopefully) find a job once you're out. Most programs, again, will help you with that in-that they will put you in connection with people that are looking for fellows to become potential partners. The programs I will apply to only take 1 fellow/year so you don't feel as if you're competing with a classmate to land a job once fellowship is over.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Feel free to PM me for any more questions!

P.S. don't go into PM&R unless you want to deal with more than just MSK injuries. There are a lot of other injuries (TBI's) and illnesses (MS for example) that you'll have to work with for residency. If that does interest you, then by all means, go for it

What made you switch from oncology to SM?

 

[watermelon master]

What made you switch from oncology to SM?

I think the better question is why are you interested in SM? Maybe OP realized they liked SM better than oncology and decided to switch?

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

I was actually talking to one of our faculty members this list semester who is a sports doc and covers a local semi-pro hockey team. It’s actually not terribly difficult if you are flexible with the sport apparently. Covering local colleges, and some of the smaller sports at D1 universities is very doable for people who want to go that route. He told me it gets more difficult if you want to cover the major sports at a D1 university as those docs mostly tend to be orthopods.

As with everything else connections will never hurt.

 

[Stagg737]

Another question is what level of athlete do you want to work with? Pro or major D1 programs (think Alabama football or Duke basketball) you'll very likely need to make connections and gain a reputation in the sports med field (others like future oncologist were be a better resource for this). If you just want to work with high level athletes though, it's not all that difficult to get a position with a D2/D3 team or with some semi-pro teams. I know my college had an ortho doc who would see athletes one morning per month in a 2 hour time span and the athletic trainers expressed more than once that they wished they had a more committed physician.

So if you just want to treat athletes and work with a team in general (high schools, most colleges), it's actually pretty doable. From personal experience (shadowing/working with professional team physicians) if you want to work with elite level athletes, it will likely require some connections or at the very least you'll have to do more than just offer your services.

 

[FutureOncologist]

What made you switch from oncology to SM?

I think the better question is why are you interested in SM? Maybe OP realized they liked SM better than oncology and decided to switch?

I did Heme/Onc research in medical school and loved the in's and out's of Cancer: pathophysiology, recurrence, clonal selection, and specifically germ-line (Pediatric) cancer. It's funny though because I shadowed an Oncologist and met a doctor that worked on rehab of patients that had recently beaten cancer (PM&R residency, SM fellowship). Anything from gaining weight back through exercise to learning how to play sports with a prosthetic. I fell in love with that more than Oncology itself. So then I shadowed a sports med doctor during a high school basketball season and I fell in love from there. Majority of my electives went into SM and do research in sports rehab in my residency currently.

One thing you have to also realize, OP (and anyone else interested in treating athletes during a season,) is that you follow them through everything. It is more than just sitting on the sidelines of an NFL game or up in box seats. Sure, if you can get to that level, it's an awesome perk. But even at the high-school level, you're putting in very long hours to pre-/rehab your athletes. When you get into the world of SM, you generally work with a team on top of working in some practice. Or, if you go D1, you will be following a lot of different teams throughout the year. Fall? Football, basketball, volleyball, track and field, cheer, and so on. Spring? Basketball, tennis, football camps/OT's, baseball, and so on. So, in either scenario, you're still putting in at least 60 hours/week. You attend night games during the week day and most likely work weekends too going to games. It's great if no one gets injured; it's a free game on the sidelines! I love football so I'd love to sit on the sideline of an NFL team. But if an athletic trainer runs out to the field, you're going out there too. Then you assess your patient for the rest of the night. And then you write up the ddx until you can get imaging and PT/AT assessment. Then the next few days, you're writing up a short-term and long-term treatment plan for the athlete. These kids are on scholarship and you better be damn sure you can get them back into the game quickly (but safely) or else they could lose what they spent so many years to get where they are. You pretty much control what they do, how they do it, and how long/often they'll be rehabing and (eventually) prehabing.

If you want to just be the SM guy in a clinic, that's cool. There are ways to get into an 8-5 clinic job with no house/home call and weekends off. But you gotta sell yourself as a necessary partner a little beyond having a fellowship. Either that or agree to take on normal patients that come in and take all referrals for SM-related injuries. So you may deal with a 55-year old lady with tennis elbow but also see the bread/butter cases in the clinic (flu, cold, sprains/strains, headaches, and so forth.) Once again, it's doable for sure. But the average FM attending/fellow has had sports medicine training and can handle the lower-acuity cases such as minor strains/sprains, broken bone follow-ups, etc.

Wanna go NFL (or insert other professional sports?) The pay is great but you'll be pulling 80-hour weeks during the season; about 70-hour weeks during training season; and 60+ hours off-season.

 

[deleted600623]

Wow this is amazing advice thank you! My dream job would be to become a sports physician for UGA athletics. With that being said, I’d pretty much have to develop some serious connections near that area? Would I need to be ortho though? I feel like physiatry seems the most sense because of the rehab training you get. I honestly wouldn’t mind the other conditions like MS, TBIs, GB syndrome etc. I think it would provide a cool variety of conditions to manage.

 

[PTPoeny]

Depending on the model the University might not want an ortho as the primary physician for the athletic department. I went to college on an athletic scholarship at a D1 school and we were expected to see the athletic department doc for everything unless he was out of town for a game. He was managing pneumonia and URIs and mono and strep throat at least as often as MSK injuries. Just googled it and he was FM trained with urgent care experience in addition to his sports med fellowship.

 

[FutureOncologist]

Depending on the model the University might not want an ortho as the primary physician for the athletic department. I went to college on an athletic scholarship at a D1 school and we were expected to see the athletic department doc for everything unless he was out of town for a game. He was managing pneumonia and URIs and mono and strep throat at least as often as MSK injuries. Just googled it and he was FM trained with urgent care experience in addition to his sports med fellowship.

This is true. And it could be flipped: the program/school/university may want to use their Ortho guys to do all follow-up to save $$$ by not hiring a non-surgical SM doc (small schools/programs.) And your SM doctor will handle athlete's non-sports-related injuries/maladies.

 

[aymar]

Depending on the model the University might not want an ortho as the primary physician for the athletic department. I went to college on an athletic scholarship at a D1 school and we were expected to see the athletic department doc for everything unless he was out of town for a game. He was managing pneumonia and URIs and mono and strep throat at least as often as MSK injuries. Just googled it and he was FM trained with urgent care experience in addition to his sports med fellowship.

We were also required to go through our team doc for everything. When I wanted to see a campus health OB/Gyn I had to put in a special request, which I thought was particularly ridiculous.

The model at my school was that each team was assigned an FM trained team physician. If we had a more serious injury or were not responding to treatment, then he/she sent us to the orthopods. I was at a large D1 school with a huge athletic budget, so each physician only covered a few teams each.

 

[ekmf27050]

We were also required to go through our team doc for everything. When I wanted to see a campus health OB/Gyn I had to put in a special request, which I thought was particularly ridiculous.

The model at my school was that each team was assigned an FM trained team physician. If we had a more serious injury or were not responding to treatment, then he/she sent us to the orthopods. I was at a large D1 school with a huge athletic budget, so each physician only covered a few teams each.

That's a little aggressive (and weird) 😱 Agree on the ridiculous part hahaha.

Our D1 program had a head FM physician with sports med training who managed the URIs, asthma, stitches, etc. Then we had a group of orthos from local hospitals that managed the MSK issues. All of the docs had clinic days in the training room during the week, and did occasional game coverage. We also had FM physicians doing their sports med fellowship year who shadowed the head FM doc and the orthos, and did a lot of the game coverage during the week.