Melanie Cole (Host): MIT Health Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Service has a brand new home on the first floor of MIT's Building E23.

Welcome. This is Conversations with MIT Health. I'm Melanie Cole, and we're joined today by Scot Spak. He's a sports medicine and orthopedics practice supervisor at MIT Health. And he's here to tell us about the service's clinical team, the new treatment space and the expanded service offerings now available to sports medicine and orthopedics patients. Scot, it's a pleasure to have you join us today. Tell us a little bit about this exciting sports medicine and orthopedic service at MIT Health. What services do you offer and who's eligible to use them?

Scot Spak: Sure. Thanks. And I appreciate the opportunity to talk about it. So we primarily focus on musculoskeletal pain and injuries, you know, bones, joints, muscles, tendons, and the like. So with that, we try to anchor our approach and care to getting the individual back to their normal daily routines, so work, recreational activity or, of course, sports. And our main offerings are diagnosing the problem and helping coming up with a solution or care plan, ranging from home exercise plans to splinting, bracing and casting and additional interventions such as injections. And then as far as those that are eligible, individuals include all those members who are part of the MIT community that receive their primary care services here at MIT Health.

Melanie Cole (Host): So do they need a referral to use the service?

Scot Spak: The way we are set up, the individual doesn't need a referral to come to our space. So all they need to do is just call the line and schedule an appointment with one of our providers and we will get them in.

Melanie Cole (Host): What a great service to be able to offer the MIT community. So this service has just moved to a brand new space on the first floor of MIT Health. Tell us a little bit about the new location and does it allow for the services to expand? Because I would imagine many people want to use this service.

Scot Spak: Correct. Yeah, we were very excited. So we opened the doors on July 5th into the new space, We're extremely excited and happy with it. So we expanded from two office spaces to three. We have six exam rooms now, which doubles our footprint. And we also have a multifunctional space. So the expansion of this will allow us to grow exponentially. So I envision being able to add more sessions, thus increasing access to the providers. We have been utilizing the diagnostic ultrasound machine that we have to enhance assessments, meaning becoming more accurate with our diagnostic tools in providing targeting injections. So utilizing that, I see us being able to expand that capability.

The multifunctional space that I mentioned also allows us to be able to expand into more comprehensive concussion care management. So not just including assessment, but also treatment with things such as balance training, vision training, and activity progression, and also leveraging that space for more directed treatment, such as osteopathic manual treatment, individual exercise and treatment plans, demonstrations and specific instructions that's delivered to these patients. So we have some flexibility and allows us to be creative.

Melanie Cole (Host): What a great breadth of services. Now, you and I both know one of the most, I. Things in orthopedics and sports medicine is the multidisciplinary approach. There's so many of us doing similar things, but each unique in their own ways. Can you tell us who's on the clinical team? Talk about that multidisciplinary approach and the range of specialties available.

Scot Spak: So we have four primary care sports medicine-trained physicians, two of which are doctor of osteopathic medicine, so that allows us to kind of expand and look at patients in a different lens as well; two orthopedic surgeons specializing in shoulder, knee, and ankle surgery and one non-surgical orthopedist. So seven total physicians that are here in the service. The sports medicine providers do not perform surgery. But we do, like I noted, have surgeons on staff that can handle ACL reconstruction or total knee replacements. And we leverage them and their private office to utilize if we need someone that specializes in hand or specializes in spine. And our non-surgical orthopedists is extremely strong in pediatric orthopedics and bone health, ranging from fracture care management and the like. So we do see a wide breadth of musculoskeletal stuff. And I think that this helps us leverage any type of case that walks in the door to provide them with the expertise that they need.

Melanie Cole (Host): Now, people get a little intimidated, Scot, when they hear sports medicine. But the service isn't really only just for athletes. Can you talk about other reasons why patients might need the sports medicine ortho team? Tell us about some of the most common injuries that you see from non-athletes.

Scot Spak: So yeah, sports medicine is somewhat of a catchall. But being at MIT, MIT is a very active community. So we think of sports maybe such as football and basketball, but we also want to expand that to the recreational tennis athlete, the recreational runner or the triathlete, or even boil it down to we have a large facility staff or the researcher that's pipetting all day or sitting at the computer. All of these have a tendency to lean towards some sort of injury or repetitive stress of that nature. So it's not just for the healthy young individual who is running around on a field. We see a wide breadth of people. And I think we really want to focus on being able to diagnose and treat those individuals to get them back to what it is they want to do, whether it's typing out their report for their job or getting up on a ladder and fixing something on the ceiling that's part of their daily life and routine. So we'd really anchor that into our practice, for sure.

Melanie Cole (Host): So in a practice like this, obviously we see so many injuries related to overuse, ones that occur in everyday life activities. Scot, I'd like you to speak about the importance of not only mixing up your exercise routine with cross training, but learning functional exercises and, most importantly, to students at MIT and faculty, but ergonomics, you mentioned sitting there pipetting or sitting at their desks, so much studying goes on. Ergonomics becomes huge with wrist, elbow, back, neck injuries. I mean, all of them, we could list them all. Can you give some of your top three tips for preventing some of these types of injuries?

Scot Spak: Happy to. I think one of the things I would definitely lean on, like you mentioned, is just think of different type of movements or different activities. So we see a lot of repetitive injuries, strain, tendonitis, things like that, from doing the same thing over and over and over again. So just challenging your body in different ways and giving it rest. So instead of training in one way one day, you do something different the other day. So it doesn't necessarily have to be rest where you're sitting on the bed or the couch, but more active rest. So just training and moving your body in different ways.

And if we lean back to that computer analogy, right? So trying to take breaks throughout the day or changing how you're sitting or working with someone that is specialized in that area to kind of set up your desk in a way that minimizes the stress on you. That would be one, I would say proper preparation, especially for those that are heading into activity or those that love activity, whether it's running or sport to make sure that you're warm and you're body's acclimated for what you're going to ask it to do that day, whether that's in the gym or out. We happen to be right along the Charles River here in Cambridge. So whether you're out on the Charles River, being active, whether that's stretching or movement preparation, I think is another key aspect.

And I think one of the biggest things, which for our students here too, is the anchor of sleep nutrition and hydration, are just huge for recovery and recovering allows you to prevent injuries from occurring, because you're not sore, you're not fatigued and then trying to do more in those states, right? So I think, for me, those are some of the things that I would definitely educate my patients on and I think are key to trying to help minimize overuse-type injuries.

Melanie Cole (Host): This is a great informative podcast. Thank you so much, Scot. Before we wrap up, I'd like you to give us a summary of the MIT Health Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Service and how it really benefits the MIT community.

Scot Spak: Like I mentioned, I really feel strongly that the MIT community is a very active population and they're driven and driven not only to be active, but to be their best in their job, their career, in their life. So I think we try to strive to get those individuals that are injured or hurt back to doing what they love to do, whether that's out on the field or out on the street running or on their bicycle or in their current environment at home or at work. Being able to do something pain-free or being able to gain function back is a game changer. And I think that that's what we try to accomplish with everybody that walks in that door, is to put them on the path to recovery and feeling the best that they can feel.

Melanie Cole (Host): Great information. Thank you so much, Scot, for joining us today and telling us about MIT Health Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Service.

Listeners can visit Health.mit.edu for more information and to get connected to one of our providers. That concludes this episode of Conversations with MIT Health. Please remember to subscribe, rate and review this podcast and all the other MIT Health podcasts. . I'm Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for joining us today.