The UConn Fellowship Experience

UConn athletic event coverage

The sideline education of our fellows is of paramount importance. When our fellows are on the sideline, the expectation is that the fellow be immediately involved in the assessment of the injured athlete. Simply put, this is a hands-on fellowship, regardless of the level of the athlete. Our fellows are given an abundant amount of UConn coverage opportunities with football, men’s and women’s basketball, soccer, hockey, women’s lacrosse, and women’s field hockey. Our fellows also take the lead with dedicated training room time for track/cross country, volleyball, baseball, and much more.

  • Doctors

UConn Sports Complex

The Husky Athletic Village and performance Complex is now complete! Functioning as the epicenter for fellow game coverage, the Husky Athletic Village consists of a new baseball stadium (Elliot Ballpark), a new soccer/lacrosse stadium (Morrone Stadium) connected to the Rizza Performance Center, a new softball stadium (Burrill Family Field), and a new hockey arena (Toscano Family Ice Forum).

UConn training rooms

With several different training rooms across campus, and more currently under construction, our fellows are never far from the resources they need to care for our amazing UConn athletes.

Ski Clinic at Stratton Moutain (Vermont)

Designed to further expose our fellows to MSK trauma management, each fellow gets to spend 2 weeks working with the experienced ski patrol and ski clinic physicians based at the medical clinic on Stratton Mountain. Lodging is provided by the fellowship.

Bellator MMA and Premier Boxing Champions fight coverage at the Mohegan Sun

To supplement our professional event coverage and incorporate experience with fight medicine, our fellows are intimately involved in coverage of Bellator MMA and Premier Boxing Champions matches at the Mohegan Sun arena. While at these matches, our fellows get to work side by side with our very own ortho/sports medicine faculty and world-renowned fight medicine experts.

The Lake Placid Ironman

Just about every fellowship across the nation offers mass participation event coverage as part of their fellowship coverage curriculum. Here at UConn, we try and immerse our fellows in learning-rich, enjoyable, and unique mass participation events. The Lake Placid Ironman is the prime example of this philosophy. It also serves as a great way for our fellows to interact with one of our treasured alumni, Dr. Tracey Viola.

Falmouth Road Race

Not long after our fellows return from their experience at the Lake Placid Ironman, they head out to Cape Cod with Program Director Matt Hall to cover the Falmouth Road Race. This race is known for its HIGH prevalence of heat illness and fellows work alongside national heat illness experts from the Korey Stringer Institute.

  • Large Group at Medical Tent

Hartford Athletic professional soccer coverage

Is it possible to offer fellows a legitimate hands-on professional team physician experience that’s more than an observership? Of course it’s possible! Our fellows get a healthy dose of life as a professional team physician for the Hartford Athletic professional soccer team whose games extend from summer deep into the fall.

  • Hartford Athletic Soccer
    Hartford Athletic Soccer

Boston Marathon medical tent coverage

Endurance race experience during fellowship is a given. Here at UConn we go big! As long as the dates do not conflict with the annual AMSSM conference, our fellows cover the granddaddy of endurance races… the Boston Marathon!

  • Boston Marathon Tent Coverage
    Boston Marathon Tent Coverage

High School Team Physician Responsibilities

In order to reach out and serve our surrounding community, each fellow serves as the autonomous team physician for 2 local Hartford high schools. The fellows spend a half day per week going to each school and providing training room coverage as well as providing sideline coverage for football.

Ultrasound usage during fellowship

Arguably the most common topic we get questions about is how we utilize ultrasound within the fellowship. On a daily basis our fellows are performing diagnostic US evaluations as well as US-guided procedures. To supplement their day to day US experiences we also offer dedicated US didactics, diagnostic US training with standardized patients, US at all clinic sites, and our own US cadaver/bioskills lab that our fellows can use as they'd like.

Scholarly activity during fellowship

In addition to presenting their cases and/or research at the AMSSM annual meeting, our fellows attend the AMSSM Fellows Research and Leadership conference, and present podium case presentations at the New England ACSM regional meeting. We also have multiple longitudinal research studies in place within the fellowship and our fellows are always encouraged to participate in our established research studies or continue/establish their own project(s).