Thursday, Could 25, 2023

Media Get in touch with:
Mack Burke | Associate Director of Media Relations | 405-744-5540 | mack.burke_iv@okstate.edu

Athletic trainers and sports medicine providers at schools across the state have a
new resource to get in touch with on for professional guidance 

 In collaboration with the Oklahoma State University Human Functionality and Nutrition
Analysis Institute (HPNRI), OSU Center for Wellness Sciences launched an Athletic Education
– Sports Medicine Project ECHO line Wednesday.

“This new ECHO line, created in partnership with OSU’s Human Functionality and Nutrition
Analysis Institute, will permit us to assistance well being providers caring for student-athletes
across the state,” stated Dr. Johnny Stephens, OSU-CHS president. “More than half of
the counties in Oklahoma have zero athletic trainers or sports medicine pros
to help in the well being and properly-becoming of our young athletes. 

“The purpose is to share expertise precise to treating student-athletes in order to
lessen injury and hold them active and wholesome. We are grateful to the Tobacco Settlement
Endowment Trust (TSET) for delivering $four.five million in funding to OSU-CHS to expand
Project ECHO’s lines of care to assistance extra well being providers and physicians across
the state with the purpose of enhancing well being outcomes, especially in rural regions
of Oklahoma.”

Project ECHO provides access to specialty care for complicated well being circumstances, in particular in rural
and underserved communities exactly where specialists are fewer in quantity and extra tough
to access. Project ECHO brings ideal-practice well being care to sufferers who commonly
wouldn’t get it due to the fact of exactly where they reside. Rather of moving folks, Project
ECHO makes use of a hub-and-spoke telementoring model to move expertise, so neighborhood principal
care providers can access knowledge to give higher-high quality, specialized care to sufferers
in their communities. 

The new ECHO line — the initially ever to concentrate on athletic coaching — will attain athletic
trainers and sports medicine providers at schools across the state to give them access
to a multidisciplinary group of athletic coaching, sports medicine, counseling and
nutrition authorities in a virtual mentoring and educational network by means of Project ECHO.

The Athletic Education – Sports Medicine ECHO will be held from noon to 1 p.m. on the
second and fourth Wednesday of every single month. Any person delivering care to student-athletes
is invited to participate in the new ECHO, which includes: athletic trainers, athletic
directors, coaches, nurses, nurse practitioners, doctor assistants, physical therapists,
rural physicians and college administrators. 

Participants will find out about the ideal practices in the identification, reduction
and remedy of sports-associated injuries to hold student-athletes active, wholesome
and expedite return to play. In addition, participants will find out about policy implementation
and management methods to enhance outcomes, sustainability and high quality of life
across Oklahoma. Participants are encouraged to submit situations to the ECHO group of specialists
who will evaluation the case and give feedback, ideal practices and educational sources
which can be implemented to enhance care for student-athletes. Athletic trainers will
have the chance to earn continuing education credit, as properly.

Rick and Gail Muncrief Executive Director Lance Walker leads HPNRI. A licensed physical
therapist and an internationally recognized professional in fusing sports functionality, sports
science and sports medicine, Walker has noticed substantial shifts in the market more than
the final 30 years. 

Walker stated the new ECHO line — the initially of 3 new ECHO lines HPNRI plans to launch
— will give the sort of sensible and analysis-supported options that will make
a distinction for athletic trainers, sports medicine pros and the folks they
serve. 

“That’s what HPNRI is all about — assisting Oklahomans reside greater lives by means of a functionality
mindset. We do that by generating connections, delivering sources and operating as believed
leaders on the cutting edge of the market,” he stated. 

“Early in my profession, it felt like there have been occasions I was on an island. Obtaining this
level of access to professional guidance from the academic neighborhood is a game changer for
athletic trainers, regardless of their encounter level. This is not a basic profession.
Human well being is difficult, and athletics presents special challenges. Project ECHO
is going to provide easy access to authorities, placing the most up-to-date, analysis driven
data and techniques into the hands of these who have to have it regardless if they’re
in a metropolitan region or in a rural corner of the state.”

Study extra, or sign up to register for future Project ECHO sessions by visiting https://okla.st/athletictrainingECHO.