Introduction to Sports Medicine
Sports Medicine Program Introduction
The Texas Tech - El Paso Department of Family & Community Medicine is currently planning on opening a sports medicine fellowship program in the next three years. The planning for the fellowship has started and the following is a preliminary look at what we hope to offer.
A Fellowship in Sports Medicine should enable the physician to reach competency and a level of comfort when providing patient care to athletes. The Vision of this program is one that has a core in the traditional sports but that focuses on outdoor pursuits. This will be achieved actively as the Fellow pursues both the academic and patient care experiences afforded by the Fellowship. At the end of the year, the Fellow should not only be competent for the Certificate of Added Qualification in Sports Medicine offered by the AAFP, but will also be comfortable as a participant and leader in the field. In addition the El Paso Texas Tech program plans to offer additional education in Wilderness Medicine. As a result, the fellow at the end of training should be very comfortable in the care of athletes both in traditional sports and in more wilderness and remote settings.
The curriculum will consist of a combination of longitudinal clinical experiences as well as subjects organized into modules. We anticipate the longitudinal portion to consist of patient care experiences with: (1) the Texas Tech – El Paso Dept. of Family & Community Medicine Residency Program; (2) Sports Medicine clinic at the Northeast Family Medicine Center (3) Sport teams at area high schools and the Local University, (4) an Orthopedic – sports medicine surgical rotation (5) Casting, splinting and rehabilitation (6) Wilderness Medicine topics as they pertain to the outdoor athlete. This year-long curriculum also involves the ongoing pursuit of research experiences.
The learning modules will reflect the academic objectives of the program. The modules are: (1) Exercise Physiology; (2) Sports Nutrition; (3) Musculoskeletal Imaging, Anatomy and Physical Examination; (4) Team Physician; (5) Mass Event Coverage; (6) Outpatient Sports Medicine and Family Medicine (7) Sports Psychology; (8) Neurophysiology of head injury; (9) Practice Management and Ethics; (10) Outdoor Sports & Environmental Hazards (11) Management of the remote patient (12) The non traditional athlete and (13) (if applicable to the needs of the Fellow) Faculty Development.
An elective rotation of up to 1 month is available. This is designed for a possible away rotation or for a one month winter sports (ski resort) rotation.