AASPT Traveling Fellowship

Fellows @ Cincinnati Football

Long before sunrise on the morning of Thursday, September 12, 2019, I boarded a sleepy airplane lightly coated in the typical Pacific Northwest mist heading towards a career-enhancing expedition.  After a brief pit stop in Denver, I continued on to Cincinnati airport, weirdly located across the Ohio River in Northern Kentucky.  Upon arrival at the CVG baggage claim I met two physical therapists who I would spend the next eleven days learning and observing various topics related to sports physical therapy. Rebecca Troulliet from North Oaks Health System in Louisiana and Patrick Barber from University of Rochester in New York joined me for the American Academy of Sports Physical Therapy (AASPT, formerly known as the Sports Section) Traveling Fellowship.  Sponsored by Kevin Wilk, LightForce and DJO Global/DonJoy. We spent about three days each at University of Cincinnati, Mayo Clinic locations in Minneapolis and Rochester, Minnesota, and The Ohio State University. 

What does it mean to be a Fellow?  According to Wikipedia, "a fellowship is a group of people who work together to pursue mutual knowledge or practice."  Though each of us had individual purposes for participation, we are all physical therapists working with athletes and we were all looking for growth in our careers.  Through observation and lecture attendance with more seasoned clinicians, we had exposure to different techniques and clinical approaches than our usual day-to-day experiences.  Now that I've returned to my usual swing of things and seeing my patients at Seattle Children's Hospital, I'm taking this opportunity to reflect on the experience and share why I chose to pursue this Fellowship along with some highlights from our trip. 

First: Why did I want to complete a Fellowship?
In May 2014, when I was completing PT School at the University of Connecticut, my career aspirations were to serve as a team physical therapist in the WNBA.  I had previously worked in a non-medical capacity for the Connecticut Sun for four seasons, but elevating to this new type of position as a new grad PT didn't seem remotely feasible.  Beyond the fact that I was a new clinician,  WNBA teams didn't have physical therapists, then, so this goal seemed unrealistic. (Most teams still don't, which I wrote about here)  I thought my fastest route to working with professional female athletes was to advance my education from PT School through a Sports PT Residency Program. In 2014 there were about twenty of those programs nation-wide, mostly offering one or two slots. I applied to three, including Ohio State, but was not successful in securing a position.  Now there are almost fifty SCS Residency programs with so many more opportunities nationwide! To search Residency programs in any PT Specialty area, click here.

Fortunately, physical therapists have an alternative route to obtaining board certification and specialization in sports physical therapy that does not require participation in a residency program.  You can find the requirements to do so here. As I pursued the alternative route, I also landed a role with the Seattle Storm, and in March 2019 completed my Board Certification Exam.  In our cohort, Pat also took his exam in March following completion of the University of Rochester Residency program and Becca is currently working through the alternative route requirements to specialize in the future.  So because I did not complete a residency program but did pursue specialization, I felt like I lacked some of the mentorship and on-field hours that a residency would have provided, and this fellowship filled some of that gap.  

Second: What was the Fellowship like? 
Each location was very different from the others which helped us gain a broad spectrum of the possible roles and responsibilities for a sports physical therapist.  

Fellows and PT staff @Cincinnati

At the University of Cincinnati, we were hosted by Bob Mangine and Tim Machan and primarily spent our time in their athletic training room with them and on the sideline.  We had the chance to watch game-time coverage, led by Head Athletic Trainer Aaron Himmler and had a sit-down discussion with their concussion program and vision training expert, neuroscientist Dr. Joe Clark. We attended lectures on a variety of topics by members of their staff including wearable technology, use of the ACL-Return to Sport Index Outcome Measure, Neuroplasticity, Prevention of Catastrophic Injuries, and and we each presented our own lectures. My presentation examined the Impact of Fear Avoidance on Return to Sport, Becca discussed Sudden Cardiac Death and Pat outlined Upper Extremity Return to Sport Tests.  

With Timberwolves Robby Sikka and Matt Duhamel

After exploring Cincinnati, the three of us packed our bags to head to Minneapolis for the first half of our visit to the Mayo Clinic.  Our host in Minnesota was Corey Kunzer who is the coordinator of the Mayo Residency program.  The clinic in Minneapolis serves the community as well as having partnerships with the Minnesota Lynx (WNBA), Minnesota Timberwolves (NBA),  and Minnesota Twins (MLB).  Only days before our arrival, the Seattle Storm had knocked the Lynx out of the WNBA playoffs so I felt a little like I was in enemy territory, but I was glad to finally meet Emily Beyer, Lynx Team Physical Therapist as well as Matt Duhamel, Team Physical Therapist/Director of Athletic Therapy for the Timberwolves and Jeff Lahti, PT for the Twins.  We also met Robby Sikka, Timberwolves VP of Basketball Performance and Technology who uses wearable technology with the basketball players to improve their on-court performance.  Their basketball facilities are fantastic and, according to their staff is considered to be the best training site in the NBA. They have practice basketball courts with athletic training rooms and locker rooms for the teams right next to the medical clinics where they have physical therapists, orthopedic surgeons, physicians, athletic trainers, and other specialties who can thoroughly care for the athletes alongside the general public.  Can you imagine being at your PT session and rehabbing alongside (Lynx superstar) Sylvia Fowles or  (Timberwolf and UConn great) Shabazz Napier?! The Mayo providers collaborate with the team providers in their biomechanics lab which includes force plates and multiple angles of cameras for jump-testing and movement assessment as well as for recommendations for optimal care.  It was a really interesting arrangement for sports medicine for all levels of athlete.

Diagnostic Imaging with Dr. Jay Smith @ Mayo

Then we drove down to Rochester, MN, home of the original Mayo Clinic.  Founded in 1889, the Mayo Clinic is basically the entire town of Rochester and the area is spotted with old historical buildings that contain the most beautiful old libraries and intricate marble ceilings that tell the history of medicine in the US along with more contemporary constructions housing the huge variety of specialties that the Mayo Clinic houses.   We learned about Diagnostic Ultrasound from expert Dr. Jay Smith were taken to the Mayo Clinic Biomechanics lab which houses the machine used by Dr. Tim Hewett to extensively study ACL injury, and participated in a golf biomechanics lab.

Coach Tamika (Williams) Jeter @ OSU

After Minnesota we headed to Columbus, Ohio, home of The Ohio State University Buckeyes.  Our host, John Dewitt took us on a tour of their athletics and training facilities where I ran into former UConn and Connecticut Sun basketball player Tamika Williams for a quick reunion.  We attended a discussion on articular cartilage surgical procedures presented by Caroline Brunst and a lecture presented by Dr. Ken Yeager on Building Resiliency observed the nationally recognized Ohio State Marching Band rehearse, attended the marching band Skull Session pep rally and another football game.  We had the chance to meet many of the Ohio State Physical Therapy Residents studying in a wide variety of specialties including performing arts, oncology, sports, orthopedics, women's health, and neurology.  And I got to see some of my Ohio family living nearby, which was the cherry on top of a really awesome collection of learning experiences.

Fellows with John DeWitt @The Ohio State University

I can't recommend this Fellowship highly enough, and would be happy to connect with anyone considering application for future participation.  I'm sure that if you asked Pat and Becca, they would select different portions of our trip as their highlights or what was most impactful based on the differences between our patient populations and professional goals, but I'm so glad I was able to share this impactful experience with them.  Thank you so much, American Academy of Sports Physical Therapy for this opportunity!