The Sports Healthcare Team
摘要
Never in the history of humankind has so much health information obtained so quickly been available to everyone. Concurrently, the concept of health has expanded far beyond physical health alone to also include mental, behavioral, and spiritual components. Sometimes in this age of rapid communication, it seems like empathetic healthcare is not being delivered with optimal harmony and synergy. Sometimes communication lines seem to function more like a “tug of war” than a conduit to care. These phenomena, coupled with the multiple specialties and subspecialties of contemporary healthcare, provide both an exciting opportunity and a significant challenge in designing and implementing quality and highly efficient athletic healthcare plans. To varying levels, patients, athletes, parents, coaches, and a wide variety of other potential stakeholders may be involved in providing athletic healthcare services and the decision-making tree. The purpose of this chapter is to sharpen the ability of the sports healthcare team by recognizing the importance of interdisciplinary and multispecialty care to overcome these obstacles in the pursuit of excellence.