There are a number of people who seem to look with disdain upon the field of sports medicine. They criticize it because you're taking care of "high-functioning, healthy people" when you should be dedicating your medical education to the poor, helpless, or otherwise unfortunate. Obviously, I am not opposed to serving the poor, helpless, or otherwise unfortunate, but I think it is equally important to treat those who are high-functioning and healthy. Some may scoff and say that a knee injury in a college football player threatens neither one's morbidity nor mortality. Is it really fair, though, to condescend and say that fixing an injury that could ruin everything that person has worked for in their life is less important than saving that same person's life in a MVA? Sure, they'll continue living if their knee never gets treated, but "living" becomes a subjective assessment. Say they are from a poor, inner city family and football is what is getting them their college education. Imagine that football is the only thing they have going for them and they've poured all their efforts into it over the years. Is it worth any less than the high-functioning student from a middle class family who has worked their whole life to go to medical school and then suffers a brain injury that lowers their intelligence to a level that is compatible with life and happiness, but not an MD? Haven't both patients worked hard and then suffered a medical misfortune that threatens their dream? Don't both deserve to have their suffering treated with equal respect?
I've found over the past 2 weeks of this sports medicine elective that I really like the patient population. We see high school kids who play for love of the game and suffer an injury, but can be treated and returned to play. Maybe someday they will even earn a college scholarship. We see the weekend warriors who work hard to keep themselves fit. They are taking care of their bodies so that they don't become obese and end up with complications such as diabetes and heart disease. Are they any less important as patients than those who don't try to lose weight and inflict all types of medical misfortunes upon themselves? We see elderly people who have always been active, but now have arthritis because their joints have taken so much wear and tear. They, too, deserve the best treatment so they can continue to stay healthy and have the best quality of life. Could you really tell any of these people, "your joints are not as important as another patient's complications of metabolic syndrome" or "your sports medicine doctor should have gone into trauma so that they could be treating patients on death's door rather than you"? I think every single specialty has it's merits and is important to the field of medicine, and that includes the oft misunderstood specialty of sports medicine.
