The PM&R Sports Medicine Fellowship at Mayo Clinic's campus in Rochester, Minnesota, is a one-year accredited program in nonoperative sports medicine that is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. The fellowship is sponsored by Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine.

This fellowship involves the primary care of patients with sports, fitness, or recreational activity-related injuries that adversely affect their ability to participate in physical activity. As a fellow, you spend the majority of your time in Sports Medicine but regularly rotate in the Musculoskeletal and Regenerative Medicine (orthobiologic) Clinics.

Mandatory rotations also include:

• Pediatric sports medicine
• Orthopedic sports medicine
• Emergency medicine (educational shifts, monthly fracture didactics, hand trauma cadaver lab, and facial trauma cadaver lab)
• Sports cardiology
• Sports physical therapy
• Sports performance
• Vascular medicine (focusing on workup for exertional leg pain)
• Pulmonology (pediatric asthma clinic and PFT interpretation)

Being the only nonoperative sports medicine fellow in Rochester, you have access to a multitude of coverage opportunities. The fellow serves as the primary team physician for Rochester Community and Technical College. This includes a weekly training room (during clinic hours) and event coverage (football and wrestling mandatory, others optional).

Additionally, the fellow will serve as a team physician for a local high school and cover all football games for that high school. Additional coverage responsibilities include the Healthy Human Race, Twin Cities Marathon, Med City Marathon, and Rochester FC men’s and women’s soccer. Additional coverage opportunities are available and can be tailored to fit the fellow’s interests including:

• High school wrestling
• High school hockey
• Austin Bruins (NAHL Tier II junior hockey)
• Rochester Grizzlies (NAHL Tier III junior hockey)
• Minnesota Twins spring training
• High school cross-country meets

Elective rotations are available and can occur in multiple areas, such as the Electrodiagnostic Laboratory, Cast Room, Radiology, Hand Clinic, Foot Clinic, Spine Center, and Pain Clinic. Elective rotations at Mayo Clinic Square (Minneapolis) Sports Medicine and a one-week rotation at the United States Olympic & Paralympic Center are optional.

The fellowship also includes extensive training in diagnostic and interventional musculoskeletal ultrasound, including injections and other minimally invasive procedures. The Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine musculoskeletal ultrasound practice is accredited by the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine.

During the fellowship, you have ample opportunity (and protected time) to participate in sports medicine-related research. Support services, such as statistics, medical librarians, and funding are available to facilitate completion of the fellowship research requirement.

The PM&R Sports Medicine Fellowship provides exposure to a broad spectrum of the practice of musculoskeletal physiatry and primary care of the athlete and prepares you for a sports- and musculoskeletal-based practice in an academic or private practice setting, including multidisciplinary groups.

Accreditation

The program is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

Program history

The PM&R Sports Medicine Fellowship at Mayo Clinic's campus in Rochester was established in 1990. Typically, one trainee completes the fellowship each year.

Our graduates have been successful at obtaining positions in both academic institutions and multispecialty groups around the country, including Mayo Clinic, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation, Hospital for Special Surgery, Johns Hopkins University, Cleveland Clinic, University of Michigan, University of Iowa, University of Washington, Seattle Swedish Hospital, University of Pittsburgh, Ohio State University, and the Andrews Institute.

Our graduates are highly sought after and are leaders of numerous fellowship programs and publish high-impact research in the field of sports medicine. Fellows leaving our program have been well-prepared for academic sports medicine and private practice positions. Our fellows have also gone on to be team physicians for high school, collegiate, and professional teams.