Medical school offers sports medicine expertise

A new sports medicine program at SIU School of Medicine in Carbondale is providing all types of athletes the medical expertise needed for them to remain healthy and active.

Working out the injury — Dr. Jerry L. Goddard, (left) an assistant professor in the SIU School of Medicine's Family and Community Medicine, examines retired SIUC Student Recreation Center director Bill McMinn's racquetball injury Wednesday at SIU's Southern Illinois Family Medicine Center. The center, which is located at 305 W. Jackson St., adjacent to Memorial Hospital of Carbondale, is offering a new sports medicine program.

The program has been developed by SIU faculty physicians at Southern Illinois Family Medicine Center in Carbondale. It uses an accredited one-year fellowship in sports medicine as its foundation.

"Our focus is on treating all 'athletes,' anyone engaged in sport, exercise or physical activity at the recreational, industrial, competitive, professional or elite level," explains Dr. Scott Schonewolf, director of the program and an assistant professor of family and community medicine at the medical school. "The same expertise we might use for an athlete is used to help a 'weekend warrior' return to full function as quickly as possible."

The fellowship provides training for one physician each year while also expanding the clinical services available for patients in the region. Sports medicine focuses treating all athletes engaged in sport, exercise or physical activity including recreational, industrial, competitive, professional or elite level. The training takes place at a variety of locations in addition to the Southern Illinois Family Medicine facilities.

"Many patients experience problems that have musculoskeletal symptoms and in fact, those are the second most common reason they seek medical attention," Schonewolf explained. "Our focus is to maintain the quality of patient care, minimize their suffering and prevent extra or expensive tests, while getting them back to their activities."

The diagnosis and treatment options used by sports medicine physicians include exercise, physiology, biomechanics, kinesiology, nutrition, pharmacology and sports psychology. New technologic advances in the field include a wide variety of braces now available for rehabilitation and prolotherapy and osteopathic manipulation used for pain relief or to restore motion. Traditional care such as casting and splinting can be provided. More traditional medical problems such as asthma, hypertension and diabetes also are addressed.

There are three faculty physicians involved in the program - Schonewolf, Dr. Jerry Goddard, and the newest addition, Dr. Jon Humphrey. They work with the other SIU faculty and the center as well as with the nine orthopedic surgeons at Southern Illinois Orthopedic Clinic, two of whom have sports medicine fellowship training. Dr. Rollie Perkins, SIUC team physician, also provides training experiences with most of the SIUC teams.

The fellowship is accredited nationally by the Accrediting Council for Graduate Medical Education. The fellow's clinical experiences include seeing patients at Southern Illinois Family Medicine, Memorial Hospital of Carbondale, SIUC Health Services, SIUC athletic training rooms and other medical offices such as SIOC and Rehab Unlimited. The fellowship program is supported with funds from SIUC Health Services and Southern Illinois Healthcare.

"In addition to helping patients, this fellowship is important for SIU's family medicine training program here in Carbondale because new rural family physicians need to have a major emphasis on orthopedics and sports medicine in their experience," added Schonewolf.

For more information regarding appointments, contact Southern Illinois Medicine Center at 618/536-6621 weekdays.