Chatham University Sports Medicine
Chatham University, in conjunction with UPMC Sports Medicine, provides comprehensive care for all of its student-athletes. This includes having two full-time Certified Athletic Trainers, who are contracted through UPMC, available for coverage of all practices and home events for all varsity sports. In addition to the full-time coverage, the partnership with UPMC not only allows Chatham student-athletes direct access to the finest in Sports Medicine physicians and Orthopedic surgeons, but also to physical therapy, sports nutrition evaluations, sports performance training, neuropsychologists for concussion care, mental training, and easy access to all other specialists within the hospital system. The UPMC Sports Medicine program is the area's leader in the prevention, care, treatment and rehabilitation of sports injuries.
Athletic trainers are health care professionals who collaborate with physicians to optimize patient and client activity and participation in athletics, work and life. The practice of athletic training encompasses the prevention, examination and diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of emergent, acute, subacute, and chronic neuromusculoskeletal conditions and certain medical conditions in order to minimize subsequent impairments, functional limitations, disability, and societal limitations.
Athletic trainers are educated and trained in injury and illness prevention strategies that focus on optimizing health to improve an individual's quality of life. They are able to examine patients/clients who have acute, subacute, or chronic musculoskeletal disorders and medical conditions and to arrive at a differential diagnosis regarding suspected pathologies. Based on this assessment, athletic trainers determine the impairments, functional limitations and the disabilities that result from these injuries and illnesses. Effective examination requires a thorough understanding of musculoskeletal and systemic anatomy, and the physiological response to injury and illness. Nutrition and wellness also play an integral role in the athletic trainers' work in preventing injury and illness. These professionals also recognize when consultation with other health care providers is necessary and refer accordingly.
Athletic trainers are the only health care professionals whose expertise in prevention ranges from minor sprains to catastrophic head and neck injuries and from minor illnesses to exertional heat syndrome.
