Team Physician Symposium

Serving as a team physician, whether for a high school, college, or professional team, carries a great deal of responsibility. First and foremost, it requires providing the best possible medical care for the injured athlete from the sideline to the clinic to the operating room. After being involved for 30 years at the collegiate level, 25 of which as the head team physician, the best advice I can give is, “don't be a fan.” It sounds a bit trite, but for some it is hard to do. You have to separate your natural home team allegiance and emotions to make the right decisions for your injured players. No matter the friendship and loyalty you have to your coaches and trainers, it is vital to do what you think is right after evaluating an injury, especially regarding their return to play. It gets complicated with external pressure from all angles, but it does not matter if it is a decision on the sideline during a game or the readiness of a player recovering from an injury or surgery, always use both sound medical judgment and your past experiences when it comes to returning an athlete to play.

Much goes on in the realm of the team physician, and I am very thankful for the contributions from the distinguished and experienced team physicians in this symposium as they thoroughly and insightfully cover several very important team physician issues in our complicated world. First, Jim Kinderknect, who has extensive experience both at the collegiate and on the professional side as a medical team physician, outlines important “basics” for a team physician, including return to play issues. Chris Kaeding, the longtime head team physician at the Ohio State University, and James Borchers review the current state of medicolegal coverage in the routine practice of crossing state lines with athletes and team travel parties, which is very important information in this era of medicine. Then Matt Matava, immediate past president of the National Football League (NFL) Team Physician Society, and co-author, Simon Görtz outline the measures the NFL has taken to optimize medical care, which has been under a great deal of recent scrutiny. There is no question many of the medical coverage changes implemented in professional football will carry over to the college ranks in due time. Finally, James P. Bradley, long tenured and well-respected team physician for the Pittsburgh Steelers, with Michaela Kopka detail the very current issue of usage of biologics in the care of athletes as this certainly has been at the forefront recently. This coverage has spread through both the media and our peer-reviewed journals, as the use of platelet-rich plasma and stem cells is being studied thoroughly.

The bottom line is the reader should glean many of the fine points and nuances of team physician coverage from this symposium to enhance their own team physician coverage abilities. The authors are all very experienced and embody a group of well-recognized, expert team physicians—it truly is an “all-star roster” and I very much appreciate their time and efforts providing these articles. Most importantly however, I appreciate their friendships and what they have taught me over the years.