Behind the Sports Medicine

Managing the Team Behind the Team: What the Best Sports Medicine Departments Do Differently How do you keep an elite medical staff focused, dialed in, and performing at their absolute highest level across a 162-game season? Instead of focusing on treating players directly, today’s guest instead invests in making the clinicians around him better. In this episode, Corey Tremble, Director of Medical...

Standard X-rays miss this injury 60% of the time, leading many athletes to play through what they assume is just regular wrist soreness, but a hook of hamate fracture can destroy an athlete’s batting mechanics for seasons to come. According to hand and upper extremity surgeon Dr. Nicholas Rose, the modern obsession with home runs and bat speed has caused a drastic uptick in hook of hamate fracture...

Why “Fixing” a Pitcher’s Mechanics Might Make Them a Worse Player The old-school approach to sports medicine often tries to force every athlete into a standardized box, but when it comes to elite baseball players, that can be counter-productive. According to physical therapist and strength coach Eric Schoenberg, changing a pitcher's natural motor preferences may reduce pain, but it may also make t...

The Real Reason Young Female Athletes Are Getting More ACL Injuries Adolescent girls are tearing ACLs at alarming rates, particularly in soccer, but the explanation most people reach for is wrong. According to strength coach and former All-American soccer player Erica Mulholland, the problem has far less to do with female anatomy or hormones than most people think. In this episode, Erica Mulhollan...

Why "Just Rest It" Isn't Always the Best Advice for Tennis Elbow Tennis elbow (or “lateral epicondylitis”) is widely known as a "country club injury," but treating it can be more complicated than its casual nickname suggests. Beneath this common overuse condition lies a complex web of stubborn tendon pathology and what is usually a grueling 12-to-18-month natural healing timeline. In this episode,...

Curt Schilling’s “bloody sock” became one of the most iconic images in sports history, but the real story behind it is far more medically complex than most fans realise. Beneath the legend was a career defined as much by medical adversity as athletic brilliance: misdiagnosis, pioneering surgery, a season-long ankle injury, and an experimental procedure performed on a trainer's table the night befo...

The American Olympic gymnastics team is doing exceptionally well, but at what cost? With kids us young as 12 doing between 30 and 40 hours of training a week, gymnastics is easily one of the most physically demanding youth sports in the world. So what happens when training loads rise faster than growing bodies can handle? In this episode, Elspeth (Elly) Hart, Physician Assistant, Certified Athleti...

Death by a Thousand Headers: The Subconcussive Reality of UK Football Concussion protocols in sport have improved dramatically over the past two decades, but what if the biggest threat to athletes’ long-term brain health isn’t concussion at all? In this episode, Dr. Adam J. White, Head of Brain Health at the Professional Footballers’ Association and co-founder of the Concussion Legacy Foundation U...

As surgical techniques for the shoulder evolve and the number of arthroplasty procedures in younger patients continues to skyrocket, how can clinicians balance aggressive innovation with predictable patient outcomes? In this episode, Dr. Sarav Shah—Chief of the Division of Sports Medicine at New England Baptist Hospital—joins hosts Andrew Rizza and Dr. Cameron Roth to discuss the complex world of...

What happens when the culture of toughness in professional football collides with the long-term reality of brain injury, and the science to understand it barely exists yet? In this episode, former NFL linebacker Ted Johnson joins hosts Andrew Rizza and Dr. Cameron Roth to discuss his 10-year career, the early days of concussion awareness in football, and his mission to transform how the world unde...

Despite pitch counts, improved training methods, and greater awareness of injury prevention, elbow and shoulder injuries in baseball pitchers continue to rise, particularly among youth athletes. So what are we still missing? In this episode, Dr. Garrett Scott Bullock — physical therapist, quantitative epidemiologist, and former professional baseball player in the Houston Astros — joins host Andrew...

When Metrics Help and When They Hurt: Why Sports Science Data Alone is Not Enough How can teams move beyond simply collecting data to making smarter, more athlete-centered decisions that truly impact performance and reduce injuries, even on a budget? In this episode, Shaun Owen, Sports Science Coordinator for the Boston Red Sox, joins host Andrew Rizza to pull back the curtain on how elite organiz...

How do you keep a Major League roster healthy through the 162-game marathon of a professional baseball season? And what does it really take to build and lead a championship-level sports medicine operation? In this episode, hosts Andrew Rizza and Dr. Cameron Roth are joined by Brad Pearson, Senior Vice President of Sports Medicine for the Boston Red Sox. With over two decades of experience in the o...

In the Athletic Training profession, salaries are stagnant, youth sports are being neglected, and practitioners are forced to get advanced certifications to make an adequate income. How did the profession get here, and what can we do to ensure its future viability? In this episode, John Lopez joins host Andrew Rizza for an extensive look at the past, present, and future of athletic training. With...

In a world where professional and collegiate sports are billion-dollar industries, why do the athletic trainers who keep these athletes on the field continue to earn salaries that don’t reflect their value? In this episode, Andrew Rizza is joined by Dr. Ross Dexter, the Assistant Athletic Director for Health and Performance at Southern Oregon University. Dr. Dexter shares his own career journey an...

A Pro Triathlete ’ s Guide to Avoiding Burnout, Injury, and Overtraining What does it really take to train like a professional triathlete? And how can you train longer and harder without burning out, getting injured, or peeing yourself mid-race (unless it’s voluntary)? In this episode, hosts Andrew Rizza and Dr. Cameron Roth chat with Lukas Siska, professional triathlete, founder of Siska Training...

What happens when medical decision-making collides with pressure from star athletes, agents, and public scrutiny? For one of the most respected team physicians in professional sports, the answer is simple: treat the human, not the hype. In this live episode, hosts Andrew Rizza and Dr. Cameron Roth are joined at the Harvard Varsity Club by renowned orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine leader Dr....

Dr. Frances Meredith on the Biopsychosocial Approach to Sports Medicine Many patients and athletes with concussion-related or chronic symptoms (brain fog, fatigue, mood changes, autoimmune issues) continue to experience lingering challenges despite receiving standard medical care. Today’s guest believes this is often because the biological, psychological, and social drivers of health are not alway...

What does it take to lead a department responsible for 12 different clinical programs and numerous future healthcare providers? In an increasingly complex academic and clinical domain, today’s guest believes that the answer often boils down to two fundamental human elements: trust and respect. In this episode, hosts Andrew Rizza and Dr. Cameron Roth are joined by Dr. Chris Ingersoll, Senior Associ...

How do you modernize athletic training education to meet the demands of the role in the current landscape? The past few years have seen a shift from rigid, hour-based clinical models to immersive, real-world learning experiences designed to create better clinicians. In this episode, hosts Andrew Rizza and Dr. Cameron Roth sit down with Sam Hughes, Director of Clinical Education and Clinical Assist...

In an era where healthcare is rapidly evolving, the path from being a new graduate to a seasoned expert requires a commitment to lifelong learning and a strategic approach to professional growth. In this episode, host Andrew Rizza sits down with Tom Denninger, DPT, OCS, FAAOMPT, the Vice President of Clinical Development at ATI Physical Therapy, and Executive Director of the Institute for Musculos...

From experiencing homelessness and living in a tent as a child to becoming a three-time NFL captain and a Harvard-educated venture capitalist, Isaiah Kacyvenski’s journey is a masterclass in the power of resilience and a relentless work ethic. In this episode, hosts Andrew Rizza and Dr. Cameron Roth sit down with Kacyvenski for a conversation that explores the human side of elite performance. Kacy...

Despite the expanding role and value of athletic trainers in healthcare, outdated laws, slow-moving legislative processes, and inconsistent regulation are limiting their scope of practice. Jamie Musler, LPD, ATC, is a governor-appointed member and chair of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Allied Health and an executive board member for the National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA). H...

Over an 11-year NFL career, Rob Ninkovich went from an undrafted free agent to a two-time Super Bowl champion with the New England Patriots. Central to that journey was his relationship with his medical team, including the renowned Head Team Physician, Dr. Thomas Gill. In this episode, they join hosts Andrew Rizza and Dr. Cameron Roth for an inside look at the physical and mental demands of a prof...

Over the past few years, the medical treatment of weight loss with various GLP-1 medications has dominated headlines, and conflicting stories on social media have created confusion and controversy. Today’s guest, Dr. Meghan Garcia-Webb, bridges the worlds of obesity care and life coaching to help patients conquer weight challenges through science, behavior change, and sustainable habits.  In...