According to the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, a sports medicine specialist is a physician that has specific specialized training in both the prevention and treatment of illness and injury.
Florida Hospital Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation is dedicated to meeting the physical, emotional, cognitive, spiritual and psychological needs of individuals who, through injury or disease, have been limited in their ability to live a full and active life.
Sonia Millan, MD discusses the field of sports medicine and when you should consider making an appointment with a sports medicine physician.
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What is Sports Medicine?
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Learn more about Sonia Millan, MD
Sonia Millan, MD
Sonia Millan, MD is a board-certified physician that specializes in Sports Medicine. She obtained her Doctorate of Medicine (MD) from the Quillen College of Medicine at East Tennessee State University. After successfully completing her Family Medicine residency in Tennessee, she decided to follow her passion for Sports Medicine by completing a fellowship in Daytona Beach, Florida at Halifax Health.Learn more about Sonia Millan, MD
Transcription:
What is Sports Medicine?
Melanie Cole (Host): From weekend warriors to professional players, spanning multiple medical disciplines, the diverse teams of physicians and specialists at Florida Hospital are highly experienced in addressing a wide array of sports and rehabilitation issues. My guest today is Dr. Sonja Millan. She's a board certified physician that specializes in sports medicine at Florida Hospital. Welcome to the show, Dr. Millan. What is sports medicine? What is this field all about today?
Dr. Sonja Millan (Guest): So, sports medicine is an area of medicine concerned with the treatment of musculoskeletal injuries. Of course, the definition of sports medicine implies that they're athletic injuries but really not necessarily. It's any musculoskeletal injury sustained during the participation of physical activity as well as life activities. You just twisted your knee or you twisted your ankle just walking, not necessarily participating in a sport. So, that's what the field is.
Melanie: So, they're basic orthopedic type injuries that don't necessarily only happen to athletes? What kind of doctor can become a sports medicine physician?
Dr. Millan: That's a good question. There are a number of ways that you ultimately can be considered a specialist in sports medicine. You do need to have a board certification in either family medicine, emergency medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine or physical medicine. Rehab has a specialty in sports medicine as well. So, what that means is for example, myself, I have a primary board in family medicine and then I did a one-year fellowship in sports medicine. So, each of these fields that I mentioned, you do a primary board in that field, and then you go on to additional training, fellowship training, in sports medicine. Orthopedic surgery has its own brand of sports medicine. However, that has been a surgical field, whereas the fields that I listed prior--ER, family medicine, peds, internal medicine, physical medicine and rehab--are all non-surgical specialties who have a sports medicine fellowship.
Melanie: Dr. Millan, if a parent has a child--we hear so much emphasis today on sports injuries and even things like concussion, ACL in soccer players--who do they go to first? Do they call their pediatrician or do they look to a sports medicine physician when they sense an injury with their child?
Dr. Millan: Well, ultimately, a parent does not have to go to the pediatrician first. However, I will say the caveat to that is, there are many insurance companies that require you to see your primary care person before they give a referral to a specialist such as a sports medicine specialist. So, theoretically though, no, you wouldn't have to start at your pediatrician, although there's certainly nothing wrong with that.
Melanie: What can you expect with a sports medicine physician? How does that differ from, say, a physical therapist or somebody that we might see along those lines?
Dr. Millan: So, to see a physical therapist, you have to have a prescription from a physician. So, that differentiates. They do the rehab of the injury that has been diagnosed by the physician. So, that would be the difference there. You'd have to see a physician to get your prescription for physical therapy.
Melanie: Then, what can they expect from a sports medicine physician?
Dr. Millan: So, you would come in and let us know what's going on and we would run you through a series of questions because with a lot of information that I gather related to an injury, I get a lot of good clues from how you sustained the injury. What are your normal activities? Are you going to tell me "Well, I was like standing there and got tackled from the side"? So, I can get a lot of information just from you telling me about how you sustained the injury. And then, of course, we run through a series of tests known as a physical exam, so then there's that. And then, after that, once we figure out what the issue is, a lot of times, actually knowing what the issue is is the least of it and the more complicated aspect is figuring out how you got there, especially when we're talking about chronic injuries. You know, a knee injury you didn't necessarily get knocked down, but over time running a certain way maybe has caused a knee injury. So, you can expect to come in, talk about how you sustained the injury, a full physical exam related to that part of your body, I guess, and then from there, we talk about the plan of how we're going to treat it. So, that can take on a number of different aspects. It could be we start with conservative stuff like your regular ICE, your elevation, putting a compression band on it. Then, we move into “does it need physical therapy?” Then, do we move in, is it a little bit beyond that? Do we need to offer some kind of injection, like a steroid injection or something called gel-shots, viscosupplementation? So, from there, we just move along the line of things that might help get you over the injury.
Melanie: Speak about orthopedic injuries for a minute, Dr. Millan, if you would. What is the difference between an acute injury and a chronic injury?
Dr. Millan: So, an acute injury is just something that you have sustained recently and it's been going on basically less than 4-6 weeks. You get into chronic once, when you know the injury is sustained. In other words, "I fell and I sprained my wrist." So, that's a known kind of mechanism to what you did to your wrist but sometimes, it can be like people come in and they're like "Well, my wrist has been hurting for two years." We don't know how it happened but it's chronic. It's been well over 6 weeks, so we call those “chronic injuries”.
Melanie: What are some of the most common chronic injuries that you see?
Dr. Millan: That really varies. So, for example, I see a lot of chronic injuries related to peoples’ work. So, let's just say, for example, a hairstylist with elbow pain or a letter carrier with knee pain. Those are different kinds of chronic injuries that I see quite a number of. Or, it could be, you know, not related to work. It could be "I've been a runner for many years and now my shins are really hurting or my hamstrings," or "I've been a swimmer and I have a shoulder pain." So, there are a number of different things I would see related to acute and chronic injuries.
Melanie: So, give us your best advice in the last few minutes here for, hopefully, preventing acute or chronic orthopedic injuries. Why listeners should come to Florida Hospital for their care?
Dr. Millan: So, for prevention of injuries, the best thing to do is if you know you've been hurt and your usual care that you give yourself, like ice and maybe taking an ibuprofen or something like that, if you know it's been going on for a long time, it would be best to get it evaluated sooner than later. And the reason for this is that if you let an acute injury get chronic, then you start compensating for this injury. For example, your left ankle's been hurting you because you twisted it and now you're going on to two months and it's not gotten really that much better. You start throwing your weight, let's say, onto your right foot or your right ankle. Then, what you may be coming in to me for is like the injury on the other side, like your ankle, your knee, or your hip, when really, it all started with your left ankle. So, I encourage people, if you know it's been going on two, four, and certainly nothing past six weeks, if you know it's been going on for quite some time, I encourage people to get it looked at, simply to avoid further injury. I guess a good reason to come to Florida Hospital Flagler Orthopedics and Sports Medicine for musculoskeletal care is that we offer a wide variety of treatments, all the way from conservative things to more invasive treatments like surgeries or injections. And then, we have a wide range of specialists within orthopedics. So, for example, our group has upper extremity specialists, lower extremity specialists, foot and ankle specialists, non-operative specialists--that would be myself--and then, we also have a gentleman that does it all. He's a general orthopedics person. So, you'd be in good hands.
Melanie: Thank you so much for being with us today. It's great information. You're listening to Health Chats by Florida Hospital. For more information, you can go to www.fhfortho.com. That's www.fhfortho.com. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.
What is Sports Medicine?
Melanie Cole (Host): From weekend warriors to professional players, spanning multiple medical disciplines, the diverse teams of physicians and specialists at Florida Hospital are highly experienced in addressing a wide array of sports and rehabilitation issues. My guest today is Dr. Sonja Millan. She's a board certified physician that specializes in sports medicine at Florida Hospital. Welcome to the show, Dr. Millan. What is sports medicine? What is this field all about today?
Dr. Sonja Millan (Guest): So, sports medicine is an area of medicine concerned with the treatment of musculoskeletal injuries. Of course, the definition of sports medicine implies that they're athletic injuries but really not necessarily. It's any musculoskeletal injury sustained during the participation of physical activity as well as life activities. You just twisted your knee or you twisted your ankle just walking, not necessarily participating in a sport. So, that's what the field is.
Melanie: So, they're basic orthopedic type injuries that don't necessarily only happen to athletes? What kind of doctor can become a sports medicine physician?
Dr. Millan: That's a good question. There are a number of ways that you ultimately can be considered a specialist in sports medicine. You do need to have a board certification in either family medicine, emergency medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine or physical medicine. Rehab has a specialty in sports medicine as well. So, what that means is for example, myself, I have a primary board in family medicine and then I did a one-year fellowship in sports medicine. So, each of these fields that I mentioned, you do a primary board in that field, and then you go on to additional training, fellowship training, in sports medicine. Orthopedic surgery has its own brand of sports medicine. However, that has been a surgical field, whereas the fields that I listed prior--ER, family medicine, peds, internal medicine, physical medicine and rehab--are all non-surgical specialties who have a sports medicine fellowship.
Melanie: Dr. Millan, if a parent has a child--we hear so much emphasis today on sports injuries and even things like concussion, ACL in soccer players--who do they go to first? Do they call their pediatrician or do they look to a sports medicine physician when they sense an injury with their child?
Dr. Millan: Well, ultimately, a parent does not have to go to the pediatrician first. However, I will say the caveat to that is, there are many insurance companies that require you to see your primary care person before they give a referral to a specialist such as a sports medicine specialist. So, theoretically though, no, you wouldn't have to start at your pediatrician, although there's certainly nothing wrong with that.
Melanie: What can you expect with a sports medicine physician? How does that differ from, say, a physical therapist or somebody that we might see along those lines?
Dr. Millan: So, to see a physical therapist, you have to have a prescription from a physician. So, that differentiates. They do the rehab of the injury that has been diagnosed by the physician. So, that would be the difference there. You'd have to see a physician to get your prescription for physical therapy.
Melanie: Then, what can they expect from a sports medicine physician?
Dr. Millan: So, you would come in and let us know what's going on and we would run you through a series of questions because with a lot of information that I gather related to an injury, I get a lot of good clues from how you sustained the injury. What are your normal activities? Are you going to tell me "Well, I was like standing there and got tackled from the side"? So, I can get a lot of information just from you telling me about how you sustained the injury. And then, of course, we run through a series of tests known as a physical exam, so then there's that. And then, after that, once we figure out what the issue is, a lot of times, actually knowing what the issue is is the least of it and the more complicated aspect is figuring out how you got there, especially when we're talking about chronic injuries. You know, a knee injury you didn't necessarily get knocked down, but over time running a certain way maybe has caused a knee injury. So, you can expect to come in, talk about how you sustained the injury, a full physical exam related to that part of your body, I guess, and then from there, we talk about the plan of how we're going to treat it. So, that can take on a number of different aspects. It could be we start with conservative stuff like your regular ICE, your elevation, putting a compression band on it. Then, we move into “does it need physical therapy?” Then, do we move in, is it a little bit beyond that? Do we need to offer some kind of injection, like a steroid injection or something called gel-shots, viscosupplementation? So, from there, we just move along the line of things that might help get you over the injury.
Melanie: Speak about orthopedic injuries for a minute, Dr. Millan, if you would. What is the difference between an acute injury and a chronic injury?
Dr. Millan: So, an acute injury is just something that you have sustained recently and it's been going on basically less than 4-6 weeks. You get into chronic once, when you know the injury is sustained. In other words, "I fell and I sprained my wrist." So, that's a known kind of mechanism to what you did to your wrist but sometimes, it can be like people come in and they're like "Well, my wrist has been hurting for two years." We don't know how it happened but it's chronic. It's been well over 6 weeks, so we call those “chronic injuries”.
Melanie: What are some of the most common chronic injuries that you see?
Dr. Millan: That really varies. So, for example, I see a lot of chronic injuries related to peoples’ work. So, let's just say, for example, a hairstylist with elbow pain or a letter carrier with knee pain. Those are different kinds of chronic injuries that I see quite a number of. Or, it could be, you know, not related to work. It could be "I've been a runner for many years and now my shins are really hurting or my hamstrings," or "I've been a swimmer and I have a shoulder pain." So, there are a number of different things I would see related to acute and chronic injuries.
Melanie: So, give us your best advice in the last few minutes here for, hopefully, preventing acute or chronic orthopedic injuries. Why listeners should come to Florida Hospital for their care?
Dr. Millan: So, for prevention of injuries, the best thing to do is if you know you've been hurt and your usual care that you give yourself, like ice and maybe taking an ibuprofen or something like that, if you know it's been going on for a long time, it would be best to get it evaluated sooner than later. And the reason for this is that if you let an acute injury get chronic, then you start compensating for this injury. For example, your left ankle's been hurting you because you twisted it and now you're going on to two months and it's not gotten really that much better. You start throwing your weight, let's say, onto your right foot or your right ankle. Then, what you may be coming in to me for is like the injury on the other side, like your ankle, your knee, or your hip, when really, it all started with your left ankle. So, I encourage people, if you know it's been going on two, four, and certainly nothing past six weeks, if you know it's been going on for quite some time, I encourage people to get it looked at, simply to avoid further injury. I guess a good reason to come to Florida Hospital Flagler Orthopedics and Sports Medicine for musculoskeletal care is that we offer a wide variety of treatments, all the way from conservative things to more invasive treatments like surgeries or injections. And then, we have a wide range of specialists within orthopedics. So, for example, our group has upper extremity specialists, lower extremity specialists, foot and ankle specialists, non-operative specialists--that would be myself--and then, we also have a gentleman that does it all. He's a general orthopedics person. So, you'd be in good hands.
Melanie: Thank you so much for being with us today. It's great information. You're listening to Health Chats by Florida Hospital. For more information, you can go to www.fhfortho.com. That's www.fhfortho.com. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.