From Wikipedia, the
free encyclopedia
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 sports medicine "team" includes
specialty
physicians and
surgeons,
athletic trainers,
physical therapists,
coaches, other personnel, and, of course, the
athlete.
History
The origins of sports medicine lie in
ancient Greece and
ancient Rome where
physical education was a needed aspect of youth –
training and athletic contests first became a part of
everyday life during these times. However, it was not
until in
1928 at the
Olympics in
St. Moritz, when a committee came together to plan
the First
International Congress of Sports Medicine, that the
term itself was coined. In the 5th century, however, the
care of
athletes was primarily the responsibility of
specialists. These were trainer-coaches and were
considered to be experts on
diet,
physical therapy, and
hygiene as well as on sport-specific techniques. The
first use of therapeutic exercise is credited to
Herodicus, who is thought to have been one of
Hippocrates' teachers. Until the 2nd century AD,
when the first "team doctor",
Galen, was appointed to the
gladiators, the
physician only became involved if there was an
injury.
Whether or not there was good
communication or rapport between the trainer-coaches and
the team physician back then is a matter of speculation.
What is clear, however, is that from its beginnings,
sports medicine has been multidisciplinary, and charged
with the obligation not only to treat injuries but also
to help prevent them, and to instruct and prepare
athletes for competition. This link with physical
education has remained in place throughout its
evolution.
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. Its
function is not only curative and rehabilitative, but
also preventative, which may actually be the most
important one of all.
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. There is much more to sports
medicine than just musculoskeletal diagnosis and
treatment. Illness or injury in sport can be caused by
many factors – from
environmental to
physiological and
psychological. Consequently, sports medicine can
encompass an array of specialties, including
cardiology,
pulmonology,
orthopaedic surgery,
exercise physiology,
biomechanics, and
traumatology. For example, heat, cold or altitude
during training and competition can alter performance or
may even be life threatening. The
female triad of disordered eating, menstrual
disturbances, and bone density problems, and the
problems of
pregnant or aging athletes demand knowledge from
many diverse fields. In addition, the management of
dermatological and
endocrinological diseases and other such problems in
the athlete demands both medical expertise and
sport-specific knowledge.
The use of
supplements, pharmacological or otherwise, and the
topics of
doping control and
gender verification present complex
moral,
legal and
health-related difficulties. Further unique problems
are associated with international sporting events, such
as the effects of travel and acclimatization, and the
attempt to balance an athlete's participation with his
or her health. Much of this draws on new fields of
study, in which extensive clinical and basic science
research is burgeoning.
United
States
The Sports Medicine specialist,
either an Orthopedist or a Primary-care Sports Medicine
specialist, is usually the leader of the sports medicine
team, which also includes physician and surgeon
specialists, physiologists, athletic trainers, physical
therapists, coaches, other personnel, and, of course,
the athlete.
Doctors wishing to specialize start
with a primary residency program in family practice,
internal medicine, emergency medicine, pediatrics, or
physical medicine and rehabilitation, and then generally
obtain one to two 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.
Sports medicine has been a recognized
subspecialty of 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.
First
Olympic sports medicine team
While watching his daughter Louise
swim at the
1968 Summer Olympics in
Mexico City, Dr. J. C. Kennedy, a doctor based in
London, Ontario,
Canada concluded for a variety of reasons that
competing athletic teams from Canada should be
accompanied by a qualified and well organized medical
team. This belief led him to be a founding father of the
Canadian Academy of Sport Medicine. One of the
primary mandates of this society was to provide expert
care to Canadian athletes, and in
1972 Dr. Kennedy was appointed chief medical officer
of the first "true" medical team, at the
1972 Summer Olympics in
Munich,
Germany. Other countries soon followed this example
and assigned medical teams to their own Olympic
athletes.
Dr. Kennedy's vision was not limited
to traveling Canadian athletes. At a time when sport
medicine clinics were unheard of in Canada, he convinced
his university's administration to convert a former
wrestling room into The Athletic Injuries Clinic that
officially opened in 1972. The first
Nautilus equipment in Canada was purchased from
funds raised to outfit this clinic. Dr. Kennedy inspired
and fostered an interest in research in sport medicine,
for which the
University of Western Ontario (UWO) and London,
Ontario have become known.
The future
of sports medicine
Many believe that sports medicine
will make its most significant future contributions in
the area of prevention. According to Dr.
David Janda, orthopaedic surgeon and director of
The Institute for Preventative Medicine in
Michigan, prevention is sports medicine's
final frontier. The risk of injury will never be
entirely eliminated, but modifications in training
techniques, equipment, sports venues and rules, based on
outcomes of meaningful research have shown that it can
be lowered.
One rapidly advancing field with
great potential for applications in prevention is the
study of the body's
neuromuscular adaptations. A study of specific
preseason neuromuscular training for
soccer players demonstrated a significant decrease
in the incidence of
anterior cruciate ligament tears. In another
investigation by Janda et al., serious injuries
in recreational
softball were reduced by 98% when breakaway bases
were used.
Participation in all forms of
physical activity at all levels is a huge part of
everyday life, and its benefits to health and quality of
life are clear. Sports medicine's continued growth and
development may help the benefits of physical activity
to be fully and safely realized.