American Medical Society for Sports Medicine
For Immediate Release May 15, 2007

OVERLAND PARK, KANSAS:  At the Annual Meeting of the American Medical Society of Sports Medicine held in Albuquerque, NM this past month, a working group led by Co-Chairs Michael Petrizzi, MD of Mechanicsville, VA, Andrew Reisman, MD, ATC of the University of Delaware, and Steve Cole, ATC an athletic trainer from The College of William and Mary presented a workshop they have developed titled, “Sideline Management Assessment Response Techniques (SMART).” 

The goal of the workshop is to help enable community physicians to develop proper skills in sideline preparedness and make them more confident in providing this service. While sports medicine specialists are well trained in these skills, there are many communities that rely upon their primary care physicians to cover local high school and youth events. The emphasis of the SMART workshop at the annual meeting was to provide the AMSSM membership with a validated teaching method so they can educate other physicians in their region in the basics of sport injury management.

Approximately 80 physicians from across the country learned techniques to teach stabilization of head, neck and back injuries in athletes, return-to-play after injury, and initial assessment and treatment of common musculoskeletal injuries athletes sustain during competition.

“One day, we hope to hear of an athlete who had a good outcome from a catastrophic sports injury based upon what someone learned from this workshop.” states Dr. Reisman.

“It is our hope that we will be able to look back 10 years from now and see that the SMART course helped to increase the number of physicians willing to cover sporting events” Dr. Petrizzi adds.

Other AMSSM members involved with presenting and developing this workshop include: Vito Periello, MD; Steven Reece, MD; Kenneth Bielak, MD; Kevin Burroughs, MD; and Thomas Howard, MD.

The American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) was organized in 1991 by physicians who recognized the need for an organization within the field of sports medicine that approached athletes, exercising individuals and teams comprehensively with consultative and continuous care of their orthopedic, medical, nutritional and psychosocial issues. Although sports medicine concepts are often thought of in conjunction with professional and elite athletes, these concepts apply to athletes of all levels including grade school, high school, college and recreational athletes. AMSSM is comprised of over 1000 Sports Medicine Physicians whose goal is to provide a link between the rapidly expanding core of knowledge related to sports medicine and its application to patients in a clinical setting.

NOTE: For more information, please contact the AMSSM, 11639 Earnshaw, Overland Park, KS 66210, (913) 327-1415.