Best Route Specialty for Game Coverage

[madiso30]

I try to do my due diligence before posting a question so apologies if this has been discussed.

Disclaimer: Just an M1 exploring options.

So I have had some great opportunities to do a couple of days of game coverage shadowing and I'm finding that this is what I really like about Sports Medicine. The initial attraction was concussions and MSK, which I still enjoy but definitely second to game coverage.

I have a decent understanding of how a career in SM may change specialty to specialty on a daily basis but I havent seen much on how your specialty affects covering games.

Is it the same regardless of specialty?

If game coverage opportunities do change based on specialty, which specialties tend to do game coverage at the varying levels of a given sport (HS, college, pros) more often?

Does your specialty effect what sport your more likely to end up covering?

Does Fellowship location effect game coverage as an attending? (Meaning those at fellowships with more D1 college and pros as a fellow will have a better chance at continuing that as an attending)

Sorry for all the questions. This all popped into my head after reading somewhere on this site that you need a sports med board cert to cover NFL games and also heard from a SM doc that covers an olympic team that another doc at the Olympics was an OBGYN.

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[runfastnow]

Game coverage is largely institution and team specific.

For my fellowship institution there was always one surgeon and one non-operative physician (PM&R or FM/IM) at every football game and men's basketball game and then all other sports were split up amongst all the non-operative sports people for the university. During fellowship the professional team we worked with also always had a ortho and an IM/FM physician for medical issues (I was unusual in being the PM&R fellow but still was there for medical purposes).

My current job has two surgeons and two non-op cover football and then we split up everything else based on our personal interests in the various sports.

Your underlying specialty largely will not restrict the type of sport you can/will cover, but understand that the high revenue sports (football and basketball) will almost always have a surgeon present at large D1 and professional settings.. It will depend on how the specific team/practice wants to do things.

You could argue that FM/IM may be an easier road to game coverage since a lot of sports FM jobs at the large (at least more broad name recognition) universities are through FM departments and have some split between student health, sports, primary care. However, I am PM&R sports trained and cover a major D1 university athletic department and love my job/specialty choice and chose it because I did not enjoy primary care clinic one bit and feel my training is much better for MSK issues, spine medicine, various US and fluoroscopic procedures, etc.

Professional sports opportunities are largely having the right network and being in the right place at the right time. The teams don't really care about your resume (research, etc.), but having good references from people they trust and then you performing well at your job and earning the trust of players and management.

Olympic sports are all unique, but you can get a long way by networking and volunteering your time at the lower level events (i.e. Junior USA Track Nationals or some equivalent for other sports) and doing a good job. Most sports have information on how to get involved.

Overall if you are early in medical school the best thing you can do is make sure you find a specialty you like (FM, IM, PM&R, ortho, etc.), do as well as you can on all the tests, and match to as residency that can expose you to sports medicine opportunities.

 

[madiso30]

Game coverage is largely institution and team specific.

For my fellowship institution there was always one surgeon and one non-operative physician (PM&R or FM/IM) at every football game and men's basketball game and then all other sports were split up amongst all the non-operative sports people for the university. During fellowship the professional team we worked with also always had a ortho and an IM/FM physician for medical issues (I was unusual in being the PM&R fellow but still was there for medical purposes).

My current job has two surgeons and two non-op cover football and then we split up everything else based on our personal interests in the various sports.

Your underlying specialty largely will not restrict the type of sport you can/will cover, but understand that the high revenue sports (football and basketball) will almost always have a surgeon present at large D1 and professional settings.. It will depend on how the specific team/practice wants to do things.

You could argue that FM/IM may be an easier road to game coverage since a lot of sports FM jobs at the large (at least more broad name recognition) universities are through FM departments and have some split between student health, sports, primary care. However, I am PM&R sports trained and cover a major D1 university athletic department and love my job/specialty choice and chose it because I did not enjoy primary care clinic one bit and feel my training is much better for MSK issues, spine medicine, various US and fluoroscopic procedures, etc.

Professional sports opportunities are largely having the right network and being in the right place at the right time. The teams don't really care about your resume (research, etc.), but having good references from people they trust and then you performing well at your job and earning the trust of players and management.

Olympic sports are all unique, but you can get a long way by networking and volunteering your time at the lower level events (i.e. Junior USA Track Nationals or some equivalent for other sports) and doing a good job. Most sports have information on how to get involved.

Overall if you are early in medical school the best thing you can do is make sure you find a specialty you like (FM, IM, PM&R, ortho, etc.), do as well as you can on all the tests, and match to as residency that can expose you to sports medicine opportunities.

Thanks for this write up. It covers pretty much everything I was curious about. I'm interested in PM&R mostly, do you mind if I PM you some questions?

 

[runfastnow]

Thanks for this write up. It covers pretty much everything I was curious about. I'm interested in PM&R mostly, do you mind if I PM you some questions?

No problem. PM is fine.