Prakash Chandran (Host): Whether your work gets done in an office or out on the field, there's nothing more frustrating than when a sports-related injury slows you down. Today, we'll be discussing the road to recovery through Sports Medicine and Orthopedics with a panel of dedicated team physicians from MIT Health. Joining us today are Dr. Angeline Elliott, Dr. Shawn Ferullo, and Dr. Christian Rose.

This is Conversations with MIT Health. I am your host, Prakash Chandran. Dr. Elliott, Dr. Rose, and Dr. Ferullo, pleasure to have you here today. Thank you so much for taking the time. I wanted to just start by maybe getting a brief introduction from each one of you and how long you've worked at MIT Health. Dr. Elliott, we'll start with you.

Angelene Elliott, MD: Hello, it's nice to be here today. So, I started with MIT Health as a fellow in Sports Medicine in 2017, and I worked with Dr. Ferullo for the 2017 to 2018 academic year. And then, thankfully they wanted to hire me as a full-time position. So, I started here officially in August of 2018. So, I've been here six years now.

Host: Awesome. what about you, Dr. Rose?

Christian Rose, MD: Hi, I'm Christian Rose. I am relatively new to MIT Health. I started here in December 2023. But I am no stranger to these two as we've overlapped at conferences and things like that in the past.

Host: Amazing. And last but not least, Dr. Ferullo.

Shawn Ferullo, MD: Thank you, Prakash. It's hard to believe, but I've been part of caring for Sports Medicine patients at MIT since 2005. I have worked with Dr. Rose and Dr. Elliott extensively in different formats, and have been kind of part of the growth and evolution of our service here within MIT Health since that time.

Host: Yeah, that's amazing. And because you have such a rich history with the program, I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about the Sports Medicine and Orthopedics practice.

Shawn Ferullo, MD: Yeah, happy to. It's certainly a practice that is near and dear to my heart. Each of our backgrounds are Family Medicine and Sports Medicine providers. Our practice is intentionally named Sports Medicine and Orthopedics as we do both of those entities and really encompass musculoskeletal health and medical issues in athletes as well. There's four of us that are Family Medicine and Sports Medicine trained. Dr. Elliott is a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine. Dr. Mackel is as well. We have an athletic trainer who is part of our group and in caring for patients. And we have three orthopedic surgeons who are contracted within our group and come in and provide patient care within our offices as well.

So, we have both surgical capabilities, non-surgical capabilities, medical issues in athletes, concussions, and musculoskeletal injuries, all within the gamut of what we're able to offer. And actually, both Dr. Elliott and Dr. Rose are trained in using office-based ultrasound for ultrasound-guided procedures, and really looking at a robust level of care and service of care for our community.

Host: Yeah, that's amazing. And I actually just wanted to ask, like, maybe just a question that was more related to something that I've been through. You know, I'm a weekend warrior. I play pickup basketball, but I'm mostly behind this desk here. Something that has happened to me in the past is I've twisted my ankle. You know, this is something that I'm assuming is very common. So when someone twists their ankle, Dr. Rose, tell me a little bit about what happens. Like when I come into your practice, what does my journey look like?

Christian Rose, MD: Certainly, it depends on the individual injury. If someone feels that their ankle is truly unstable, they're unable to walk on it, I do urge people to either access their urgent care partners or an emergency room in the situation where somebody is having pain. But if they otherwise are able to walk on it, they're otherwise feeling stable, ideally contact your orthopedic office, and we can usually get you in within the week, potentially even same day.

When you come in, we'll be very thorough about our hands-on evaluation. In certain cases, that does lead to imaging like x-ray, which we do have access to on site. And in certain cases, it might actually be better suited to take a look on ultrasound and take a look at some of the tissues, see if there's actually fluid buildup in the joint, that sort of thing. So, we have a lot to kind of diagnose the initial injury. And then certainly, we work with our community partners and physical therapists to try to really get you back to your full function, whether that's at a desk or basketball court.

Host: I love it. And yeah, you kind of alluded to some of this, but can you maybe speak to some of the procedures or technologies that you use to help patients feel better and get back to playing and doing whatever they need to do?

Christian Rose, MD: Certainly. So as Dr. Ferullo already alluded to, we have a variety of skill sets here. So for example, Dr. Elliott is an expert in musculoskeletal manipulations and osteopathic manipulations. And that can be a major contributor to a patient's overall improvement. In the office, technologically, I think our biggest offering really is the ultrasound, because when someone comes in, we're able to more accurately make diagnoses based on the tissues that we're able to actually see, based on what we are evaluating of the joint as well. And if we needed to, or if a person's pain kind of warrants it, we certainly could perform same-day procedures if needed. But often, it goes far in building our relationships with patients because they leave with a better understanding of what's truly going on.

Host: Yeah, that's amazing. Dr. Elliot, I had a more general question, you know, sports medicine is in the name of the practice. And I'm curious as to if sports medicine only treats professional athletes or athletes, or does it also deal with sports-related injuries?

Angelene Elliott, MD: So, athletes are definitely one part of our practice within Sports Medicine, but we do not just treat athletes. Anyone in the MIT community that feels they have a musculoskeletal injury can be evaluated by us. So, that could be, you know, a varsity athlete or it could be an 80-year-old woman that fell and twisted her ankle and needs to be evaluated. So yeah, we can treat way more than just athletes.

Host: Yeah. And so, Dr. Ferullo, maybe you can expand on this a little bit. It sounds like you basically service a range of individuals, right? And some of the things that they might come in with, can you talk a little bit about who can utilize the services?

Shawn Ferullo, MD: Yeah, happy to. So we, as Dr. Elliott mentioned, are open to the MIT community. Our clinic is able to see anyone in the MIT community who is on one of the MIT-sponsored health insurance plans. And we certainly see athletes, non-athletes, repetitive injuries from musicians or research labs or other work that people might do. We do see some work injuries if necessary, and really run the gamut of from recreational exercise to runners, to rock climbers, to musicians, to work-related or overuse-related injuries on top of the sports component of what we do.

Host: Okay. So Dr. Elliott, if a patient like myself wants to schedule an appointment with the Sports Medicine and Orthopedics practice, how can they go about doing so?

Angelene Elliott, MD: So, there are definitely various ways to access our care, depending on kind of what technology you like to use best. So, you can do the old-fashioned way, walk up to our desk in MIT Health and talk to the patient service representative and schedule an appointment, live in person if you happen to be here on campus.

A new way that I like to do personally is to online schedule through our website, which with that, you can, you know, pick the department you want to be seen in. And then, you can pick the doctor you'd like to see, and you can see the open availability. So, that's pretty simple. And, you know, I think everyone is enjoying that. You still can call and make an appointment too. So, you can call the general MIT Health number and talk to somebody over the phone to make the appointment.

And then, another way that you could as well, if you are part of the eHealthyLife Patient Portal, you could also send a message through that requesting an appointment and then someone would get back to you. So, there's many ways you can get hold of us.

Host: Yeah, I mean, that sounds amazing. And Dr. Elliot, I actually had an ancillary question. Do you have any recommendations around when someone should consider calling in to schedule an appointment? I feel like so many times, at least for myself, I like to just wait on things, maybe put some ice on it and hope that it heals on its own. Do you have a recommendation around when people should be thinking about making that appointment?

Angelene Elliott, MD: If it's definitely affecting like your day to day function and you feel like, know, you're not functioning in your life or your pain level is so high that it's definitely affecting you, I think, you know, that's a case that you definitely need to come in to be seen. It's usually not out of the world to give it a few days to see, you know, if you're doing generally okay at home, if you give it a few days, it's usually okay. But we are happy to see anybody kind of at whatever point the patient feels they need to be seen, because everyone is different and we're happy to see when you feel you need to be seen as well.

Host: Yeah. And at least for myself, I know you kind of want to get back out there as quickly as possible. Dr. Elliott one more question. I heard that

Bay State Physical Therapy is opening up a satellite location at MIT Health. Will you be partnering with that practice for patient referrals?

Angelene Elliott, MD: Yes, we are very excited to welcome Bay State physically where our sports medicine office is, the physical therapy office will literally be on the other side of the wall. so we are looking forward to partnering with them when people need physical therapy referrals. we will, work with them to sometimes we may walk them right over and say, Hey, You know, let's get you started right now.

patients will still be able to access other physical therapy sites, if they have a pre-existing relationship or maybe campus access isn't actually easy for them if they work remote. but we are, very excited to be partnering to have physical therapy on campus

Host: Yeah, that sounds amazing. And just to close us out, Dr. Ferullo, what do you like most about working with the MIT community?

Shawn Ferullo, MD: Oh, this is a great question. I think, in some ways, without saying our community is amazing, and MIT does amazing things and our community members do amazing things. I think one of the things I like most is I think a lot of people may underrepresent how active the MIT community is, if that is a varsity sport or a club athlete or a recreational runner or intramural sports, and from the research work of it all and the other components of things.

So, I think for me, one of the things that excites me the most is knowing our community, being part of that community and being able to care for the community is so real and part of what we do every single day that it keeps me coming back day after day and enjoying what I do all the time.

Host: Well, I love that and I think that is the perfect place to end. Thank you all so much for your time. For more information about MIT Sports Medicine and Orthopedics Team, you can visit health.mit.Edu and search sports medicine. If you found this podcast to be helpful, please consider sharing us on your social media and check out the full podcast library for more topics of interest to you. I'm Prakash Chandran, and this has been Conversations with MIT Health. Thank you so much.