PM&R vs. Sports Medicine

[sparkysparkyboomman]

Hi all,


Just an MS1 here but trying to figure out more about specialities to alleviate SOME future stress about decisions (lol).

I’ve searched through some of the forums (and Google), but can’t seem to get a clear answer.

Can someone explain the path to becoming a sports medicine doc and key differences between this and PM&R?

Thank you in advance!

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[Chelsea FC]

Would suggest the PMR& sports fellowship specific forums. From what I know Sports is a fellowship that is available to both PMR and FM residents. The field is mostly dominated by FM grads and is ran by FM docs so its harder for PMR to get into so if that's your end goal then prob you would have an easier path by matching a strong FM program with inhouse Sports specialty.

 

[dangEras]

MSK is a broad field and mostly handled by Ortho and PM&R. If you want to work in a clinic with 100% MSK complaints (injuries, joints, back pain, tendon tears, etc) ortho or pm&r are the best path.

Sports is a subset within realm of MSK. Most fellowships are handled by FM. I've yet to see a purely sports clinic in my large and relatively saturated city. Most take a mix of FM and sports patients.

 

[Deecee2DO]

PMR or ortho (if you want surg) with sports med fellowship. Ortho or PMR more money and more chill and its not FM

 

[Link0358]

Sports Med is generally divided into two categories: surgical and non-surgical.

Surgical sports med is a fellowship from ortho where you focus on sports injury repair using surgical techniques such as ACL repairs.

Non-surgical, or primary care sports medicine, is a fellowship from a large number of fields but most commonly FM and PMR. The focus is on diagnosis and non-surgical treatment of MSK injuries. You learn injections (usually steroid, HA, or PRP), ultrasound diagnosis, tenotomy, and a host of other non-surgical procedures. As a graduate you can work in ortho offices doing non-surgical ortho, on sports teams, in academia, or in your own sports med clinic.

A sports med graduate from an FM fellowship or a PMR fellowship are essentially the same. They take the same boards, and the pay and opportunities are comparable. The difference is the training background. On the one hand, PMR has a better background in MSK from their residency. On the other, having a medicine background is beneficial when taking care of the primary care needs of an athlete.

If your goal is non-surgical sports med, it’s generally recommended to choose the path which you would enjoy the most during residency.

 

[sparkysparkyboomman]

Thank you all so much! This cleared up everything and helped me immensely.

 

[Gilakend]

PMR or ortho (if you want surg) with sports med fellowship. Ortho or PMR more money and more chill and its not FM

I need to shadow PM&R, do you know if it's common for a PM&R doc to have a sports only practice? Or do they generally have a mix of sports/TBI type stuff.

 

[Chelsea FC]

My opinion on this is that I am very risk adverse So I choose the field that I would be most happy with without the fellowship

 

[dangEras]

I need to shadow PM&R, do you know if it's common for a PM&R doc to have a sports only practice? Or do they generally have a mix of sports/TBI type stuff.

Perhaps my experience is biased given my practice setting in a large city.

The major PM&R Career tracks:
1) General inpatient only - broad mix of cases.
2) General inpatient/outpatient combo practice - Inpatient 8am-noon, Clinic 1pm-4pm. Broad mix of cases. Following up your broad inpatient discharges which includes a few TBI/SCI.
3) General outpatient only - ends up nearly 100% MSK.
4) General SNF - basically a step down from inpatient in terms of acuity, but higher case load. Mostly MSK, some TBI/SCI, some neuro.
5) TBI - inpatient and outpatient combo practice - only seeing TBI. Work for large academic institutions.
6) SCI - inpatient and outpatient combo practice - only seeing SCI. Work for large academic institutions.
7) Pain managment - outpatient only - pain cases only. mostly private practice as part of pain/spine/ortho group or solo.
8) Interventional Spine - outpatient only -pain cases only. More solo setting compared to pain management.
9) Sports - Ends up same as outpatient general PM&R. Practically the same as an IM resident doing a pgy-4 chief year.

There are also the more rare fields like cancer rehab, burn rehab, which are truly small niche fields.

 

[Angus Avagadro]

In our area sports med docs manage all non surgical issues the team orthodopods doesnt want to manage.Simple fractures, rehab, concussions, soft tissue injuries with injections, return to play, etc. Basically anything an athlete needs which is non surgical. Some team Docs in our area hand these duties off to their PA, so it's a competetive area for FM and PMR to be able to do exclusively. Most have a combo practice.

 

[Cranjis McBasketball]

There are definitey plenty of sports med docs who specialized in FM and did a fellowship who ONLY do sports medicine.