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"Of course the athletes like all the bells and whistles that our new Athletic medicine Center has. But if you ask the athletes who have undergone major surgeries or lengthy rehabilitation program, they do appreciate the space and equipment our facility has to offer. They realize and appreciate that they have access to the best medical care as a collegiate athlete, and I believe it helps motivate them to work hard and do well." - Kat Kaihoi |
Joyce Winslow
jwins@uoregon.edu
From the moment you press the big "O" in the door handle of the University of Oregon's new Athletic Medicine Center, you sense you're about to enter a different world.
Inside is a dazzling, ultra high-tech space filled with glass, mirrors, bold buffed-metal graphics--even a waterfall. But behind the breathtaking bling is serious functionality. This facility was built with student athletes' total health in mind, and the athletes themselves played a role in its design.
Completed in the summer of 2007, the center is the result of months of preliminary research and consultation with coaches and athletes as well as architects and administrators. Three times the size of the facility it replaced, the 14,000-square-foot center has the technology and human know-how not only to immediately diagnose and treat injuries, but to foster every aspect of an athlete's mental and physical well being.
The center has seven full-time athletic trainers who oversee rehabilitation and therapy for injuries, two on-site physicians, a physical therapist consultant, a team of orthopedic consultants, nine graduate student assistants, and a full-time nutritionist and life skills counselor. To help them do their work, there is a new digital X-Ray unit, an array of therapeutic tubs (including three with HydroWorx underwater treadmills), a dental screening room, a vision testing room, a nutrition bar, exercise machines and strength training equipment for every body part, a machine that measures lean body mass, and a small pharmacy.
Student athletes also benefit from experimental new technologies such as the ARP (Accelerated Recovery Program), an electrical stimulus device that's used for rehabilitation or as part of a dynamic warm-up. Kat Kaihoi, a second-year GTF who works as an assistant athletic trainer for football, says the ARP is most commonly used for dynamic warm-ups and describes how it works: "The electrodes are placed on the proximal and distal portions of a muscle that you hope to stretch. While the ARP is turned on, the athlete performs dynamic stretches of the muscle group. The idea is that the electric stimulus allows the muscle to be more relaxed, enabling it to stretch further. This theory is not scientifically proven yet, as the ARP is a fairly new modality, but we have been trying it out this year."
The medicine center is not just about the latest and greatest in technological advances, however, even though these definitely play an important role in assisting athletes to be at their best. The center's athletic training program also covers self-care basics like nutrition and dental hygiene, as well as life skills such as financial planning, time management, career goals, and community service. The aim is to prepare student athletes for all aspects of life. The center's staff are mentors, friends, counselors, and role models as well as technical experts in their field.
Like most of her colleagues, Kim Terrell, associate director of the Athletic Center, particularly enjoys the "mentoring piece" of her job. "I love helping athletes achieve their goals. They are already so motivated, it's a joy to work with them," she says.