How Do You Find a Sports Medicine Expert

So how do you know if you’re making the best choice in care? It’s quite the challenge for the non-medical consumer. Here’s a couple of my suggestions:

Start with a physician.

• • Physician assistants and nurse practitioners are vital members of the health care team, but they do not have the specialty training that a physician does. In-fact, most only have one total month of orthopedic training.

Look at where the physician did their initial residency training and sports medicine fellowship

• • I did my training (residency and fellowship) at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, one of the top hospitals in the world.

See which teams/sports your physician has worked with

• • I have worked at all levels of sports medicine care with experience at the high school, junior college, all three NCAA divisions, the NFL, NBA, MLB and Olympics sports like the US Soccer Federation and USA Boxing

Evaluate what research your physician has done and is currently doing

• • Research is an important part of any medical field and when you have a physician actively engaging in research, they are working to continue to improve the field of sports medicine
  • I am the national leader when it comes to the medical implications of the sport of fly fishing. We are currently publishing research with Bowling Green State University’s graduate athletic training program. We have 2-3 projects going on at any time including large concussion studies

See what organizations your physician is active in

• • I am a member of both the American Osteopathic Academy of Sports Medicine (AOASM) and the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM). These are the top two professional sports medicine organizations in the country and I am actively involved in the following ways:
    • AOASM (19-year member)
      • Board of Directors Member
      • Created and run the Osteopathic Sports Medicine Board Review Course
      • Chair of the membership committee
      • Research committee member
    • AMSSM (12-year member)
      • Membership committee member
      • Mentorship committee member
      • Student/Resident Journal club physician leader
      • Scholarship reviewer
    • Ask around
      • Now this is typically the most common way you choose a physician and there is a lot of value in doing so, just like reading comments posting on the internet about physicians.
      • I believe folks are motivated to leave comments when they are either extremely happy or extremely disappointed with their care. Having just joined the Toledo Clinic a few months ago we are building up our Google Business profile and encouraging our patients to leave feedback in this very public forum.