Sports medicine rural

[RickHarrison]

Hey all,

3rd year medical student interested in sports medicine and confused on what base specialty to choose between EM, Peds, FM, and PM&R.

How feasible are practicing these specialties in a rural area and what would ones practice look like?
Specifically populations of
A. 2000 - 10,000
B. 10,000 - 25,000
C. 25,000 - 50,000

In regards to family med, obviously they can go anywhere but I've heard that sports medicine fellowship may be a waste of time. It may help with marketing but that wouldn't seem to be an issue in a smaller community. Can someone elaborate

Thanks!

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[teacherman84]

Hey all,

3rd year medical student interested in sports medicine and confused on what base specialty to choose between EM, Peds, FM, and PM&R.

How feasible are practicing these specialties in a rural area and what would ones practice look like?
Specifically populations of
A. 2000 - 10,000
B. 10,000 - 25,000
C. 25,000 - 50,000

In regards to family med, obviously they can go anywhere but I've heard that sports medicine fellowship may be a waste of time. It may help with marketing but that wouldn't seem to be an issue in a smaller community. Can someone elaborate

Thanks!

Choose the primary specialty you would be most happy practicing and go that way because in a small town you prob won't have an exclusively sports practice and most of what you'll do is your primary specialty.

I'd say peds or fm at all 3. Fm is a good fit anywhere and the sports experience is just a way to attract referrals from other primary care in town and cover local sports. Plus the procedures are fun and can generate revenue. Peds...same but younger pts and prob less procedures. PMR and EM you'd prob want to be on the larger end you listed

 

[RickHarrison]

Choose the primary specialty you would be most happy practicing and go that way because in a small town you prob won't have an exclusively sports practice and most of what you'll do is your primary specialty.

I'd say peds or fm at all 3. Fm is a good fit anywhere and the sports experience is just a way to attract referrals from other primary care in town and cover local sports. Plus the procedures are fun and can generate revenue. Peds...same but younger pts and prob less procedures. PMR and EM you'd prob want to be on the larger end you listed

Thank you for the advice. You bring up a good point about the procedures.

My thought is that some of those populations are not large enough to sustain a full sports medicine practice so you might have to do 1/2 sm and 1/2 base specialty.

So I guess my question is how feasible is it for an Peds/EM/PM&R doc to be sustainable in a town of 5,000; 10,000, 20;000.. It seems much harder for a PM&R doc but I'm not sure. Would the ERs be too slow to want an EM?

 

[teacherman84]

Thank you for the advice. You bring up a good point about the procedures.

My thought is that some of those populations are not large enough to sustain a full sports medicine practice so you might have to do 1/2 sm and 1/2 base specialty.

So I guess my question is how feasible is it for an Peds/EM/PM&R doc to be sustainable in a town of 5,000; 10,000, 20;000.. It seems much harder for a PM&R doc but I'm not sure. Would the ERs be too slow to want an EM?

Depends on the market...either way, I stick with my initial point...sports aside, choose the specialty you'd be most happy practicing. Now is the time to figure that out, the rest will come later. If you love PMR, great, go do it. You prob won't find much in a town of 5k but you can find something on the smaller side.
Small town ER would prob love a board certified ER doc. Figure out where you're most happy.