Sports medicine programme set to continue

Posted on: 14 October 2016

The success of the sports medicine pilot programme, launched last year to provide a pathway of care for the athletes of Trinity's focus sports as well as the scholarship athletes, looks set to continue for another year, with the addition of insurance cover now available to all students registered to all sports clubs.

This will ensure all registered students will be covered and have access to medical care pathways.

Those who participated in the pilot, a collaborative project between the Department of Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine, Trinity Sport and the Student Health Centre, benefitted from speedy access to a range of sports medicine services while also facilitating research on injury prevention and management.

Medical director of the programme, the first of its kind in an Irish university setting, is Professor of Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine Cathal Moran who is also a consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Santry’s Sports Surgery Clinic (SSC).

What makes the programme unique in an Irish university setting is the research component, which is combined with education and clinical care. Throughout the pilot an injury registry was compiled, providing valuable data from within a collegiate setting.

Professor Moran commented: “It is very exciting to be involved in a programme which delivers new standards of care for students in the Irish university setting. It has been a wonderful experience to work with the students involved, as well as all the staff. We look forward to continuing to improve our programme, to not only deliver the best possible clinical care, but also to deliver new programmes in sports medicine research and innovation.”

Head of Sport Michelle Tanner added: “At a time when Trinity Sport is ‘raising our game’, the introduction of the sports medicine programme has proved to be an essential element of the high performance support required to facilitate our teams and players to excel. The staff supporting the programme are excellent and we look forward to extending the programme to as many sporting students as possible.”

Almost 20% of the overall student injuries in the pilot required a surgical procedure. As well as access to the medical care pathway, these students also availed of a functional athletic screen whereby each athlete was given an individualised corrective programme to work on, in an effort to prevent any potential injuries from occurring.

As part of the progression into phase two, the plan is to now make available insurance cover to all registered to Trinity sports clubs in 2016-2017. For more information contact programme manager Laura McCague mccaguel@tcd.ie

*The Department of Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine, and Sports Surgery Clinic, will be hosting the second annual Sports Medicine Conference in TBSI on Friday October 21. The focus of this year’s event is modern management of ACL injuries. The conference is sure to be of interest to all sports medicine clinicians, physiotherapists, athletic trainers and translational researchers. For further details email conference@sportssurgeryclinic.com