HJAR Sep/Oct 2021

40 SEP / OCT 2021 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS CHILDREN’S HEALTH the appropriate rehabilitation and therapy plan, an athletic trainer can often evalu- ate and treat conditions, which allows the athlete to avoid visiting a physician or sur- geon. Sports medicine physicians are for- tunate to have athletic trainers within the school systems to serve as the liaison for communication and medical needs of the student athletes to keep them healthy. The future of sports medicine care is transitioning to this model with the com- prehensive care of the student being the highest priority. Our goal is to streamline communication among the student ath- letes and their families with the athletic trainers serving as the best go-to between them and their team of physicians, sur- geons, physical therapists and various other specialists. n Larry Balle II, MD, MPH, provides sports medicine coverage atArkansas Children’s Northwest (ACNW) through a partnership withACNWand the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Ortho- pedics to the athletes at partnering high schools in the NWA region. He joined UAMS in April 2020 and currently serves as a teamphysician for the Univer- sity of Arkansas. Balle completed the Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship at UAMS Northwest Regional Campus. He has also provided sports medicine coverage for various high schools and athletics events such as the Eurekan Sports Festival, the Joe Martin Stage Race, and the Hogeye Marathon. of a distal posterior medial tibia stress injury, which is common in a distance athlete. With the parents’ approval, the athletic trainer and sports medi- cine physician coordinate care with several specialists, including a sports nutritionist, formal physical therapist and biomechanical specialist. This coordinated care not only helps with the current symptoms but prevents them from reoccurring in the future. After a team approach is created for the rehabilitation plan and return to sport, the care is then transitioned back to the athletic trainer. In the above examples, the certified ath- letic trainers serve as the first-line medical providers, or gateway primary care med- ical professionals, within the schools by handling the majority of the medical or musculoskeletal needs of our student ath- letes to allow them to participate safely in their respective sports. An athletic trainer within a school provides a huge resource of medical knowledge in situations where not every student athlete has the benefit of visiting with medical professionals on a regular basis (if even at all). They are advocates for their students’ healthcare needs and either direct them to the appro- priate needed specialty or resource or help rehabilitate them to return to sport. With athlete is seen and evaluated by the appropriate specialist immediately, without having to see multiple differ- ent physicians and receive multiple different referrals, and a reduction is performed of the fracture. The athlete is given return to sport criteria by the specialist. 3. A cross-country runner who has transitioned to indoor track distance tells her athletic trainer that she has had multiple episodes of recurrent right shin pain over the past several weeks. Initially, she is treated conser- vatively by her athletic trainer with rehab and physical therapy for po- tential soft tissue injury. She is placed in a tall walking boot for offloading. Her athletic trainer notes that she has not made as much improvement as one would have liked to have seen over the last couple of weeks and calls the sports medicine physician for concern for a stress injury of the tib- ia (shin bone). The athlete is seen the same day and evaluated, where a high clinical concern for a distal tibia stress fracture is suspected by the sports medicine physician fitting with the athletic trainer’s suspicion. An MRI is obtained and confirms the diagnosis “An athletic trainer within a school provides a huge resource of medical knowledge in situations where not every student athlete has the benefit of visiting with medical professionals on a regular basis (if even at all).”