Sports Medicine - Scope of The Speciality

Scope of The Speciality

Sport and Exercise Medicine doctors are specialist physicians who have completed core medical training, residency training in a specialty, and then gone on to complete additional fellowship training in Sport and Exercise Medicine. Specialising in the treatment of athletes and other physically active individuals, they have extensive education in musculoskeletal medicine. SEM doctors treat injuries such as muscle, ligament, tendon and bone problems, but may also treat chronic illnesses that can affect physical performance, such as asthma and diabetes. SEM doctors also advise on managing and preventing injuriesSee 'Role of Specialist SEM Doctor', FSEM website

Specialists in SEM diagnose and treat any medical conditions which regular exercisers or sports persons encounter. The majority of a SEM Physicians' time is therefore spent treating musculoskeletal injuries, however other conditions include Female athlete triad, Unexplained Underperformance Syndrome, Exercise-induced asthma, screening for Cardiac Abnormalities, Diabetes in Sport. In addition Team Physicians working in Elite Sport often play a role in performance medicine, whereby an athletes’ physiology is monitored, and aberrations corrected, in order to achieve peak physical performance.

SEM consultants also deliver clinical physical activity interventions, negating the burden of disease directly attributable to physical inactivity and the compelling evidence for the effectiveness of exercise in the primary, secondary and tertiary prevention of disease