The Toledo Hospital is the largest acute-care facility in the region. Serving a 23-county area in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan, the 774-bed hospital is staffed by more than 4,000 professional health care employees. Patients at The Toledo Hospital have access to the area's largest board-certified medical staff, comprised of over 1,100 primary care and specialty physicians.

The Toledo Hospital Family Medicine residency was started in 1974 and has a long tradition of graduating quality family physicians. As of July, 2006, the residency has graduated 172 family physicians. They are practicing in a variety of arrangements including solo practice, partnerships, groups, academic positions, university health service, missionary medicine, the armed services, occupational medicine, and sports medicine.

Primary Care Sports Medicine Residency Program

This program , affiliated with The Toledo Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program, is a 12-month clinical training program designed to meet the primary objectives needed to achieve a sub-specialty certification in sports medicine. Three fellows are accepted annually. It was one of the first Primary Care Sports Medicine Residencies established in the United States, and has graduates throughout the country. It is best known for its hands-on experience with athletes at all levels.

Today's athlete faces a wide variety of medical and orthopaedic issues. Appropriate care demands a physician skilled in providing comprehensive, highly specialized care. In the United States, primary care physicians deliver most sports health care. Therefore, The Toledo Hospital Primary Care Sports Medicine Residency Program has been developed to improve the knowledge base and provide a mechanism of gaining advanced training for those primary care physicians who care for a significant number of athletes in their practice and/or provide coverage for athletic events.

Through the Primary Care Sports Medicine Residency Program, fellows will be involved in providing care for athletes at all levels including those involved with the following:

* NCAA Division I athletics (The University of Toledo)
* NCAA Triple A baseball (Toledo Mud Hens)
* IHL Minor league hockey (Toledo Storm)
* 10 high schools in the Greater Toledo area

The primary care physician provides initial evaluation and treatment for athletes. Five associate medical directors provide diversity in teaching sports medicine. Additionally, some faculty associate directors are osteopathic medicine physicians. Fellows learn how to use osteopathic manipulations concurrently throughout their residency to routinely treat sports injuries.

For patients' convenience, on-site support services include radiology, a full-service laboratory, physical therapy, a clinical pharmacist and clinical psychologist, as well as a procedure room for casting and minor surgery. A medical science/sports medicine library also is located at Wildwood Medical Center, providing sports medicine professionals and physician fellows easy access to computer searches, inter-library loans and information on the most advanced treatments and technologies.

Curriculum

The curriculum is broad-based and established on guidelines set forth by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the Council on Postdoctoral Training (COPT). The established core curriculum provides the breadth of knowledge required, while remaining flexible to accommodate incoming fellows' strengths and areas for growth.

Core Curriculum

* Two one-half days (20%) in the individual's primary care discipline. This will be arranged through The Toledo Hospital, based upon the fellow's primary care specialty.

* Two one-half days (20%) in the sports medicine clinic exclusively seeing sports medicine patients referred to the clinic.

* Team physician for local high schools, including event coverage, training room triage and weekly treatment with follow-up in the sports medicine clinic, as necessary; instructing coach's clinics as assigned; and supervising on-site training staff.

* Assistance with training room and event coverage for the Toledo Mud Hens professional baseball team and the Toledo Storm professional hockey team. Direct one-on-one supervision with both orthopaedic and primary care trained sports medicine physicians provides excellent hands-on exposure.

* Didactic lecture series, presented by the sports medicine staff and faculty at The University of Toledo, under the direction of the Sports Medicine program directors and director of sports science research.

* Monthly Textbook Club

* Preparation and presentation of didactic lectures to trainers, physical therapists, residents, staff and the public on topics ranging from on-field emergencies to rehabilitation of athletic injuries. Typically four to six presentations over the course of the year.

* Coverage for community sporting events, as necessary. In previous years, coverage was provided for the PGA Championship at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio; local 10K road races; Glass City Marathon; USTF 24-hour Run National Championship; The Toledo Senior Judo Championship; and numerous other athletic activities.

* Monthly Journal Club: Fellows conduct a review of recent pertinent literature and landmark research with primary care sports medicine staff.

* Monthly sports medicine radiology conference; musculoskeletal fellowship-trained radiologist presents submitted cases from the sports medicine clinic and local physicians to promote discussion and enhance understanding of various imaging techniques.

* Formal presentations at local, state and national sports medicine meetings when appropriate.

* Research: During the fellowship year, the fellow will be required to prepare a minimum of one scientific paper suitable for publication. The subject will be mutually acceptable to the fellow and the program director. This paper will be submitted for presentation at a regional or national sports medicine meeting. The program director, along with the director of sports medicine research, will provide the necessary support, guidance, and resources in all phases of this effort.

Rotations

Although part of the core curriculum, the time spent in the following rotations is based upon the fellow's background, clinical skills, academic strengths and weaknesses and interest areas. The educational experiences are based on a longitudinal model, with anticipated temporal overlap of the various rotations.

Sport Medicine Orthopaedics: The fellow works with fellowship-trained sports medicine orthopaedic surgeons in their clinic(s), in the training room and in the operating room, as appropriate. Through hands-on instruction and via direct observation, the fellow will enhance orthopaedic assessment skills, surgical knowledge and appropriateness of referrals.

Exercise Physiology: A full-time exercise physiologist is on staff for consultation or referral concerning sports-specific training regimens, wellness programming and training in conducting cardiac stress testing and fitness evaluations.

Sports Nutrition: A registered dietitian is available to provide dietary counseling and monitoring of sports medicine patients. Individual and group lectures, as well as computerized dietary programming, are utilized as teaching aids.

Sports Psychology: A clinical psychologist is available as a consultant to evaluate and treat sports-related psychological disorders, in conjunction with the referring fellow. Informal individual discussion and group lectures on specific topics serve as teaching methods.

Physical Therapy/Rehabilitation: An on-site sports medicine physical therapy clinic provides comprehensive evaluation, treatment and rehabilitation of athletic injuries and post-operative care. The fellow works directly with physical therapists and trainers to enhance the understanding of rehabilitation concepts, use of modalities, bracing/taping techniques and functional evaluation of athletes.

Click here to see more details

This information is reposted with thanks to Toledo Hospital.