Standardizing biologics research in sports medicine is one of the most important issues Alexis Colvin, MD, of New York City-based Mount Sinai is paying attention to.
Dr. Colvin, who also works as the chief medical officer for the U.S. Open, spoke on the "Becker's Spine and Orthopedic Podcast" about what she believes are the most pressing issues in sports medicine.
This is an excerpt. Listen to the full podcast here.
Question: What are the top three issues in sports medicine today?
Dr. Alexis Colvin: Number one is the role of biologics in sports medicine. This has been a pretty hot field for a number of years, and it's only increasing in popularity. Something that's needed is really standardized research and trials to determine what actually works, and that's even starting from the type of injection to what it is that we're actually administering to the number of injections, and efficacy. It's moving in the right direction, but we're still in need of more high quality controlled studies.
The second thing I would say is the role of virtual medicine, not just in orthopedics, but in medicine in general. There's definitely a big space right now in terms of physical therapy, seeing patients virtually, and with more common orthopedic injuries such as back pain, patients can now see providers virtually to get this treated at least in the initial stages. So I think there's a big role for that and learning how it can be useful in orthopedics.
The third one is, even though we are surgeons, I think we want to try to prevent things from needing surgery. In particular with sports medicine, it's looking at things such as training load and form and technique and all the things that we can do to help prevent our patients from getting to the point where they sustain an injury. I think there is a lot of emphasis on that and a lot more things that we can use to measure that, including things such as wearables and devices.