VCOM View Vol 11 No 1

Advancing Sports Medicine in Louisiana Sports Medicine is a dynamic and rapidly growing subspecialty within the medical profession. VCOM is proud to be at the forefront of this movement. Both the Virginia and Auburn campuses already have well-established, award-winning sports medicine departments that each include a prestigious sports medicine fellowship program. The newest VCOM campus in Louisiana is gearing up to launch a similar program in the Delta Region.

either an assistant or associate professor in family medicine. During the pandemic, the sports medicine team has been some of the only faculty members on the VCOM-Louisiana campus to participate in day-to-day clinical patient care. Student Participation Given that this subspecialty focuses on all aspects of movement and exercise, sports medicine is a very functional medicine and thus, offers some of the earliest hands-on opportunities for medical students attending VCOM. Through the sports medicine program, students can perform exams on healthy individuals, which provides them a foundation for comparison with unhealthy individuals later in their education. season for ULM and Grambling, VCOM-Louisiana medical students and faculty performed physicals for the athletes. This service, which is often an expense incurred either by the school or the students, was offered free of charge to all participants by VCOM. Collegiate Involvement Leading up to the fall sports

by Desi Hammett

V COM-Louisiana is quickly following in the footsteps of its sister campuses and making the most of the partnerships it has built with the University of Louisiana Monroe (ULM), Division I – FBS athletics, and Grambling State University, Division I – FCS athletics, as well as a few high schools across the state of Louisiana. Through these partnerships, VCOM-Louisiana hopes to provide comprehensive sports medicine to the Monroe community at the high school, collegiate and recreational levels to promote life-long health, wellness and physical activity. “The care that our sports medicine team provides to the community isn’t just a result of working with

athletes,” said Stephanie Aldret, DO, CAQSM, Chair for Sports Medicine at VCOM-Louisiana. “It’s about working with anyone who wants to get up and move.” While small in number, the VCOM- Louisiana Sports Medicine team is one of the most hands- on departments currently on campus, being, as Aldret said, “everywhere all the time.” The five full-time sports medicine faculty members are a department that reaches into several specialty areas, including family medicine, osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM), clinical medicine, anatomy, simulation and technology, surgery, pediatrics and pharmacology. Each member of the department also serves as

These physicals are required for all

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