The American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) is a large

sports medicine Sports medicine is a branch of medicine that deals with physical fitness and the treatment and prevention of injuries related to sports and exercise. Although most sports teams have employed team physicians for many years, it is only since the ...

membership organization, representing over 3000 physicians in the United States, established in 1991. AMSSM includes members who serve as team physicians at the youth level,

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

, NFL,

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

, WNBA,

MLS Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

, and

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

, as well as with

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

and

Paralympic The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaire ...

teams.

Sports medicine practice in the United States

Sports medicine Sports medicine is a branch of medicine that deals with physical fitness and the treatment and prevention of injuries related to sports and exercise. Although most sports teams have employed team physicians for many years, it is only since the ...

is a subspecialty area of medicine in the USA. The AMSSM represents non-surgical sports medicine physicians (MDs) practicing primary care sports medicine. The primary specialty options for non-surgical sports medicine practice in the USA are multiple, including

family practice Family medicine is a medical specialty within primary care that provides continuing and comprehensive health care for the individual and family across all ages, genders, diseases, and parts of the body. The specialist, who is usually a primar ...

physiatry Physical medicine and rehabilitation, also known as physiatry, is a branch of medicine that aims to enhance and restore functional ability and quality of life to people with physical impairments or disabilities. This can include conditions su ...

pediatrics Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until th ...

, internal medicine and

emergency medicine Emergency medicine is the medical speciality concerned with the care of illnesses or injuries requiring immediate medical attention. Emergency physicians (often called “ER doctors” in the United States) continuously learn to care for unsche ...

. Sport and exercise medicine physicians are able to prescribe

pharmaceuticals A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and rel ...

, use

diagnostic ultrasound Medical ultrasound includes diagnostic techniques (mainly imaging techniques) using ultrasound, as well as therapeutic applications of ultrasound. In diagnosis, it is used to create an image of internal body structures such as tendons, muscles ...

and order other

radiological imaging Medical imaging is the technique and process of imaging the interior of a body for clinical analysis and medical intervention, as well as visual representation of the function of some organs or tissues (physiology). Medical imaging seeks to rev ...

and

blood tests A blood test is a laboratory analysis performed on a blood sample that is usually extracted from a vein in the arm using a hypodermic needle, or via fingerprick. Multiple tests for specific blood components, such as a glucose test or a cholester ...

, perform minor

surgical procedures Many surgical procedure names can be broken into parts to indicate the meaning. For example, in gastrectomy, "ectomy" is a suffix meaning the removal of a part of the body. "Gastro-" means stomach. Thus, ''gastrectomy'' refers to the surgical remo ...

as well as advising on

exercise prescription Exercise prescription commonly refers to the specific plan of fitness-related activities that are designed for a specified purpose, which is often developed by a fitness or rehabilitation, or Exercise medicine specialist for the client or patient. ...

. Branches of particular interest include concussion in sport and sports cardiology. The AMSSM is differentiated from other sports medicine organizations in the US as follows: * The American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine is the primary surgical subspecialty organization for MDs (orthopedic surgeons) * The American Osteopathic Academy of Sports Medicine is the primary sports medicine organization for DOs. * The

American College of Sports Medicine The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, is a sports medicine and exercise science membership organization. Founded in 1954, ACSM holds conferences, publishes books and journals, and offers certific ...

is the broader organization which includes both physicians and non-physicians, like Athletic Trainers and Exercise Physiologists and other Sports Scientists.

Position Statements

The AMSSM publishes multiple Position Statements including on concussion, cardiac screening of athletes, mental health, cardiac consequences of COVID in sport, ultrasound and sexual violence in sport. It also shares and endorses consensus statements of/with other organizations.

History

The AMSSM was established in 1991, when sports medicine was officially recognized as a subspecialty branch of medicine in the USA. Past Presidents include

Jonathan Drezner Jonathan A. Drezner is an American sport and exercise medicine physician, currently editor in chief of the ''British Journal of Sports Medicine''. In both clinical practice and research he has a strong interest in sports cardiology. He is a f ...

, Chad Asplund, Katherine Dec, Cindy Chang, Kimberley Harmon, Robert Dimeff, James Puffer, Doug McKeag and John Lombardo.

References

{{Authority control Sports medicine organizations Sports organizations established in 1991 Medical associations based in the United States Sports professional associations based in the United States Medical and health organizations

Sports medicine practice in the United States

Position Statements

History

See also

References