Sports Medicine Services (2024)

FAQs

What is the difference between a sports medicine doctor and a physician? ›

While it is true that all doctors can be of service to injured people, sports medicine doctors are specially trained to assess and treat sports-related injuries quickly so that the athlete can recover in a timely manner and get back to playing.

Aside from the sports focus, the main difference between the two fields is that a sports medicine specialist offers a variety of treatments, including surgery. Physical therapy, on the other hand, uses only stretching and strengthening exercises and tools to help foster orthopedic recovery.

A sports medicine physician treats athletes and non-athletes alike. They're highly trained to treat injuries to your musculoskeletal system, which includes your bones, muscles and joints. They don't perform surgery, but they can treat several conditions like sprains, strains, tears and breaks.

Sports medicine is a specialized branch of medicine that focuses on the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of injuries related to sports and physical activity. It combines medical knowledge with exercise science and aims to optimize athletes' performance while minimizing the risk of injuries.

Orthopedists might treat everything from trauma surgeries like fixing broken bones to addressing long-term conditions like rheumatoid arthritis. Sports-medicine specialists emphasize restoring function to injured athletes so they can return to play, ideally at a higher level of performance.

Sports medicine focuses on helping people improve their athletic performance, recover from injury and prevent future injuries while physiatrist or rehabilitation physician are the doctors who specialize in nonoperative physical medicine which means they can treat musculoskeletal problems without the use of surgery.

One common misconception about sports medicine is that it is only for athletes. In fact, most patients who receive care from a sports medicine physician do not participate in competitive sports.

One of the significant advantages of sports medicine is the focus on preventing injuries before they occur. A sports medicine specialist can provide personalized advice and treatment plans to help patients stay healthy and avoid injuries. These techniques include: Stretching exercises.

While both health professionals treat patients with orthopedic pain symptoms and injuries, they are not one and the same, although you may come across both of them over the course of injury treatment, since physical therapists and sports medicine doctors are both sports injury specialists.

Sports medicine may be called Sport and Exercise medicine (SEM), which is now well established in many countries.

What is the primary job of sports medicine? ›

Primary care sports medicine includes diagnosis and non-surgical treatment of sports- or activity-related injuries and illnesses, and a focus on injury prevention, rehabilitation, and nutritional and other lifestyle guidance in support of strength-building and athletic performance.

Orthopedic sports medicine is the investigation, preservation, and restoration by medical, surgical, and rehabilitative means to all structures of the musculoskeletal system affected by athletic activity.

There is the potential for conflict in sports medicine. For example, the desire for a team to win a game might conflict with what's best for one athlete you're treating. If a coach wants a player to play who is unable due to injury, this can create a challenging circ*mstance for a sports medicine specialist.

Aspiring sports medicine physicians must next earn a medical degree, either a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) or a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.).

While your primary physician is well equipped to diagnose and treat a wide variety of ailments and conditions, they are not specialized in treating sports-related injuries. A sports medicine practitioner can work in a variety of settings including in a sports medicine clinic or as a team physician.