Sports Medicine Program Helping Athletes of All Levels
Abstract: The Sports Medicine Program at Wake Forest Baptist serves not only professional athletes in our region, but “weekend warriors” and child athletes as well. Physician team members are fellowship trained in sports medicine as well as their specialty training. In addition to active clinical and rehabilitative care, research is a focus. A human performance laboratory is in the planning stages.
From Clinical Update, Fall 2007
Sports Medicine is “all the rage” these days with sports medicine clinics popping up in communities large and small. But few programs, if any, offer the breadth and depth of knowledge and experience as Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center Sports Medicine.
Utilizing a truly multidisciplinary approach, physicians in Orthopaedics and Family Medicine have come together to form a program that is focused on treating the whole patient, from super athlete to weekend warrior, with the goal of maximizing performance and minimizing injury. All physicians in the program are fellowship trained in Sports Medicine in addition to their specialty training.
Faculty in the Sports Medicine program serve as team doctors for sports teams of Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem State University, the Winston-Salem Warthogs and U.S. Soccer, as well as the dancers at North Carolina School of the Arts, NASCAR drivers and various high school teams. Walt Curl, M.D., professor and clinical director of Orthopaedic Surgery, who recently rejoined the faculty, has been a team physician since 1978, and David Martin, M.D., professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and director of Sports Medicine, has served as team physician for Wake Forest University and other teams since 1990.
“Our focus is the application of sound medical principles to a special population with common problems,” said Martin. “We take care of the most elite athletes in our area and apply that same care to pediatric athletes, active baby boomers and weekend warriors.”
“In addition to the skills of our orthopaedic surgeons, we bring expertise in meeting the medical challenges that can be barriers to performance, like asthma, diabetes and other conditions,” said Daryl Rosenbaum, M.D., director of the primary care sports medicine fellowship. “Plus we have access to the resources of our nationally acclaimed academic medical center.”
Once the injury is diagnosed and treated, patients undergo physical therapy at CompRehab, a convenient and easily accessible rehabilitation center with physical therapists specially trained in sports therapy.
Research is an important component of the program. Former chair of Orthopaedic Surgery Gary Poehling, M.D., professor, is an international leader in the use of allografts in reconstruction and is a pioneer in arthroscopic surgery. Orthopaedic surgeon Cristin Ferguson, M.D., assistant professor, is one of the few true physician-scientists doing research in meniscal and cartilage transplantation.
Curl's research focus areas include tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, and clinical research on ACL injuries and prevention.
Sharing the knowledge of this team with community physicians is achieved through Sports Medicine Grand Rounds, a monthly webcast that can be viewed live the second Friday of each month from 12:15-1:15 p.m. Hosted by NW AHEC, webcasts are also archived for later viewing.
The future offers promising new programs. “We are in the midst of developing a human performance laboratory to evaluate therapeutic approaches in maximizing performance and preventing injury,” said Curl.
“This is truly an exciting time for us,” said Martin. “The theme of our whole program is to be active for life. Advances in ligament reconstruction, total joint replacement, tissue engineering and injury prevention will enable us to keep our patients active from the time they are children throughout their entire lives.”