THE INTERNIST AS SPORTS MEDICINE PHYSICIAN

The internist can play an important role in sports medicine, ranging from serving as a team physician to providing medical care in the office to athletes with special problems such as exercise-induced asthma or post-exertional hematuria. Preseason physical examinations are excellent opportunities to emphasize preventive medicine, including avoidance of all forms of tobacco and excess dietary fat. The examinations should focus on the exclusion of entities that can be life-threatening to the athlete, such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and the Marfan syndrome. Medicine-oriented fellowships are available in sports medicine, as are post-graduate courses for team physicians. Certifying examinations in sports medicine are now given through the American Board of Internal Medicine. Future needs include education in sports medicine and exercise physiology at the medical school level and the availability of sports medicine rotations in medical residency programs.