Sports Medicine Fellowship Curriculum

A key experience for the primary care sports medicine fellow at the Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital is becoming a team physician for a local college and a high school. By assuming the primary role as team physician, the fellow gains extensive experience assisting on the sidelines and evaluating acute injuries while following multiple sports. During the course of the fellowship, the fellow is exposed to a minimum of 2,000 encounters that involve sports injuries. This is accomplished by training the fellow in a variety of settings and under the supervision of faculty who have extensive experience in sports medicine.

The fellowship is a fully accredited program of the Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital Family Practice Residency, which is affiliated with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Greensboro Area Health Education Center.  We accept three fellows per year through the NMRP Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship Match.  Karl B. Fields, M.D. is the Director of the Sports Medicine Fellowship and has a CAQ in Sports Medicine, as well as being active nationally in sports medicine with the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Sports Medicine, and the American Medical Society of Sports Medicine.  Associate Director, Dr. Rebecca Bassett, is a CAQ Sports Medicine trained faculty and is a team physician for the US Olympic Women’s' Soccer Team.  Additional faculty include community-based, sports medicine fellowship trained family physicians, orthopedists with active sports medicine practices and local primary care physicians. Community faculty in various disciplines participate in teaching elective experiences.

In order to assure continuity, each fellow works primarily with one orthopedic office and is the team physician for one college and one high school. Guilford College is an NCAA Division III school with 3,000 students and multiple sports coverage opportunities.  The Guilford College fellow works with Murphy and Wainer Orthopedics and is the team physician for Southern Guilford High School. Elon University is a Division I school with approximately 4,000 students. The Elon fellow works with Kernodle Clinic Orthopedics and is the team physician for Eastern Alamance High School.  North Carolina A&T  is a Division I school with approximately 10,000 students.  The A&T fellow works with Guilford Orthopedics and is the team physician for Randleman High School.    

The sports medicine fellow's education occurs through a variety of clinical settings, including primary care sports medicine clinics, orthopedic clinics, student health sports medicine clinics, training room experiences, physical therapy, radiology, rheumatology, podiatry, hand surgery, primary care and event coverage. Additional coverage includes the Marine Corps Marathon and other mass events, such as triathlons and soccer tournaments.  Fellows may also opt to work with former fellows to provide periodic coverage of arena football, minor league professional baseball and boxing.

Additional key components of the curriculum are proficiency in procedures.  These include the preparation of orthotics, joint injections, casting, splinting, and musculoskeletal ultrasound.  One specific goal is proficiency in stress testing, by performing 50 ETTs.  Elective educational experiences are available in exercise physiology, sports psychology, and sports nutrition, in collaboration with the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Faculty at the Family Practice Center also assist fellows with scholarly projects, including research, case reports and complex treatment issues with athletes.

During the course of the year, we expect each fellow to complete some form of scholarly activity with the intent of publishing. This may be a research project, a review article, or a case report.  The publication record of the program has been consistent and each fellow has gained skills in writing, critical literature analysis and basic research.  Fellows frequently present at our monthly sports medicine journal clubs which  include local sports medicine and orthopedic surgeons, athletic trainers and fellows and faculty from Cabarrus, Wake Forest and Charlotte sports medicine fellowships.  All fellows are expected to submit a case for presentation to the annual AMSSM meeting.  Our fellows attend at least three sports medicine conferences during the year, including the Advanced Team Physician Course, the AAFP Sports Medicine: Strategies for Treating Athletes Meeting and the AMSSM annual meeting.

Teaching is also an important component of the fellowship.  Fellows present lectures to medical students and residents, precept residents in primary care clinics, and rotate with residents and medical students  at the orthopedic office and UNCG sports medicine clinic.  One half day per week is dedicated to sports medicine didactic teaching with Drs. Bassett and Fields of sports medicine topics, cases and journal articles.    

The experience of the Sports Medicine Fellowship helps the fellow achieve the following goals:

1. A balanced experience including clinical care in primary care sports medicine, orthopedics, and preventive medicine.
2. Academic skills that enable the fellow to critically review articles, write effectively for publication, and understand the basics of sports medicine research.
3. Maintenance of family practice skills while developing skills as a team physician at the collegiate and high school level.

For more detailed rotation goals, please visit our educational site 

Below is a sample schedule for the sports medicine fellows.