Working In Sports Medicine

As elite athletes have come to be viewed as a discrete population with distinct medical needs, so sports-specific healthcare professions have emerged. Over the last six years in particular, British sports medicine clinicians have sought to create a world-class medical support service for this population. By drawing on the perspectives of healthcare providers, this book explores key developments such as the professionalisation, formalisation and bureaucratisation of sports medicine in the UK and the consequences of such developments on doctors' and physiotherapists' working practices, relationships with each other and on athlete care. Working In Sports Medicine is a valuable addition to existing literature on the medical management of pain and injury. It offers a unique analysis of a context that sociologists of sport in the UK are yet to investigate - Olympic sport. This book is both current and relevant given London's hosting of the 2012 Olympics and will suit students and lecturers interested in sporting healthcare, elite performance and inter-professional relations as well as those with a professional interest in managing injuries.