Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist has partnered with two additional high schools in the Guilford County Schools system to provide official team physicians and certified athletic trainers (ATCs).
Grimsley and Southern Guilford high schools will each have Wake Forest Baptist ATCs at most practices and games for major sports. Wake Forest Baptist will also provide physician medical director services.
"Certified athletic trainers are an integral part of our sports medicine team at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist and we are so pleased to be adding these schools in Greensboro to help keep even more student-athletes safe,” said Dr. John Tipton, Guilford County medical director of Wake Forest Baptist’s Athletic Training Outreach Program and clinical adjunct faculty at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. “Our program allows the ATCs and team physicians to get to know each student-athlete and create relationships with them which helps keep them healthy.”
In addition to the ATCs, Wake Forest Baptist is providing management, support services, and additional personnel to each school such as a coordinator, and a medical director.
“Now more than ever, schools are turning to health systems like ours to keep student-athletes safe, and when injuries do occur, to help maximize healing and recovery,” said Dr. Cynthia Emory, professor of orthopaedic surgery at Wake Forest Baptist and chair of orthopaedic surgery and rehabilitation at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. “We are proud to have one of the largest athletic training programs in the nation and to partner with local high schools to help prevent, evaluate, treat and rehabilitate any sports injury for student-athletes.”
ATCs can offer everything from evaluations and game-day treatments to developing plans to help a player after an injury. The Wake Forest Baptist sports medicine team will provide care for any athletic related illnesses, concussions, and emergencies, along with nutrition and general health and wellness support.
“For many years, people in Guilford County and across our region have trusted us with their health care needs,” said Dr. Brian Waterman, director of sports medicine and orthopaedic surgeon at Wake Forest Baptist.
“By getting to know each student-athlete, their lifestyles and goals, and working directly with them and the coaching staff at each school, our sports medicine team is making a direct impact in our community,” added Waterman, who is also a professor of orthopaedic surgery and chief of sports medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
Wake Forest Baptist provides sports medicine services to a number of area professional sports teams, universities and high schools, including the High Point Rockers, Wake Forest University, Winston Salem State University, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, Wilkes County Schools, Yadkin County Schools, Mount Airy High School, Lexington High School and several other high schools in Guilford County in the High Point region, making it one of the largest athletic training outreach programs in the nation.
Wake Forest Baptist also offers a 12-month fellowship, designed to educate and advance ATCs within the specialty area of musculoskeletal medicine, and a 12-month primary care and orthopaedic sports fellowship.
Media contacts:
Jenna Kurzyna, jkurzyna@wakehealth.edu
Joe McCloskey, jmcclosk@wakehealth.edu