FAYETTEVILLE - The state’s first sports medicine fellowship for family physicians, offering advanced training on diagnosis and treatment of sports-related illness and injury, started this past summer on the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ (UAMS) northwest Arkansas campus with cooperation from the University of Arkansas Athletics Department and clinical partners.
Sports medicine fellows gain clinical experience seeing patients at UAMS-affiliated clinics as well as working with University of Arkansas student-athletes while under supervision of UAMS faculty and clinical partners, including Advanced Orthopaedic Specialists, the official sports medicine provider for the Arkansas Razorbacks.
UAMS received accreditation for the fellowship in October 2014 from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). Completing the fellowship will enable a physician to sit for the sports medicine subspecialty board exam conducted by the American Board of Family Medicine.
Kyle Arthur, MD, was selected as the first fellow in the program and began the one-year program in July after completing his family medicine residency at the UAMS northwest Arkansas campus in Fayetteville. In the future, UAMS will host two fellows annually.
The fellowship provides physicians a year of experience focusing on the evaluation, management and treatment of a wide range of injuries and illnesses related to athletes and active lifestyles. The fellowship includes instruction on non-operative options related to musculoskeletal injuries along with the complexities of medical issues pertaining to athletes ranging from cardiac care to asthma to concussion.