Don’t leave the podium…you’re not done yet! Hughston Clinic orthopedic surgeon, Champ L. Baker, Jr., M.D., FACS, has received the Robert E. Leach, M.D, “Mr. Sports Medicine” Award from the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM). The organization also honored him with the George D. Rovere, M.D., Award for his contributions to sports medicine education.
Two Awards for Dr. Champ Baker
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As part of the “Mr. Sports Medicine” Award, $5, 000 will be donated to Dr. Baker’s charity of choice. Regarding the George D. Rovere Award, throughout Dr. Baker’s career he has served the AOSSM and other organizations, and remained dedicated to education and training. For 25 years, Dr. Baker has served as Director of the Hughston Sports Medicine Fellowship program at the Hughston Clinic.
“It is a tremendous honor to be recognized with these awards, ” said Dr. Baker in the news release. “I am humbled and grateful. It has always been my passion to serve and give back to the field of sports medicine, to further advance the discipline through research, continuing education, hands-on experience, physician collaboration and the discovery of new and innovative ways to treat patients.”
The former president of the Hughston Clinic, Dr. Baker is now Chairman of the Board of Directors at the Hughston Foundation. He is also a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Medical College of Georgia. Dr. Baker holds teaching appointments at Tulane University School of Medicine and at the Medical College of Georgia.
Dr. Baker is the team physician for Columbus State University, and has served on the U.S. Olympic Committee as a volunteer physician and is past president of the Board of Trustees at Columbus State University.
Regarding the state of sports medicine education, Dr. Baker told OTW,
When Dr. George Rovere was chairman of education committee of AOSSM in the mid 1980’s, knowledge was passed by word of mouth and at scientific meetings. Most articles were anecdotal. Surgeons learned by observation. Today’s information is instantaneous; our scientific reports are mainly prospective, critically evaluated, and often multi-center in origin, and we learn by doing, in labs, on simulators and yes, still by observing and listening. Education is all about communication and sharing ideas and experiences. The means of transmitting that information may be different now and in the future, but as long as we observe, think, and document our experiences for others, the future of education in orthopedics remains bright–and is the best means of helping fellow physicians help each other to help our patients. That is still the ultimate goal, learning more each day, each patient, each surgery, so the next day, patient, surgery, will receive our best effort.
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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