An in-depth USA Today story about new frontiers in sports medicine features ground-breaking work of internationally renowned orthopedic surgeon James Andrews, MD, who is affiliated with St. Vincent's Health System in Alabama, of the Ascension Birmingham Ministry Market. In 2012 ESPN called Dr. Andrews "arguably the world's most famous and best orthopedic surgeon."
According to the story, new innovations in keeping baseball players healthy and playing is an outgrowth of an approach begun nearly 14 years ago by Dr. Andrews and his colleagues.
Dr. Andrews founded the American Sports Medicine Institute (ASMI) in 1987 and with research director Glenn Fleisig, PhD, helped revolutionize the field, according to USA Today. To focus on prevention rather than simply treatment, Dr. Andrews in 2002 began encouraging baseball teams to send all pitchers, even healthy ones, to his center for testing.
Around that time, Oakland Athletics pitching coach Rick Peterson sent some young pitchers to the center for analysis, and one of them – Barry Zito – won the American League Cy Young Award. "That was good for business," Dr. Freisig says in the article.
Peterson is now director of pitching development with the Baltimore Orioles. "The Orioles pitching development program is based on research and science from Dr. Andrews and Dr. Fleisig," he says in the USA Today story, "and our motivation is to fully help every pitcher in this organization to bridge the gap between potential and performance."
The company KinaTrax has developed three-dimensional motion-capture technology for major-league ballparks to replicate the work of ASMI's biomechanics lab, USA Today says. In addition, ASMI has endorsed using pitch counts in Little League games and guidelines to help keep pitchers' arm healthy and safe through Pitch Smart, a joint effort of Major League Baseball and USA Baseball, the story says.
Click here to read the USA Today story.
