ESPN West Palm Tonight interviewed Kathleen L. Davenport, MD, physiatrist at HSS Florida, on-air to discuss her area of focus as a physiatrist and common injuries affecting high school and college athletes.

Dr. Davenport noted, “We’re [physiatrists] a very important part of the sports medicine team. A lot of people look at us as the non-surgical specialist of an orthopedic or musculoskeletal condition. Just like an orthopedic surgeon we evaluate and diagnosis tendon issues, bones, joints, sprains, strains all of those things. But instead of doing surgery we focus on the non-surgical options to treat those conditions. Our specialty is huge on teams. Taking a condition, making the right diagnosis, putting together the right team with the patient at the center of the team and getting our athletes back on the field.”

“When we’re working with our high school and college athletes who are trying to level up and really optimize their function and their sports goals, we really want to look at their movement patterns and make sure they’re as clean and optimized as possible,” said Dr. Davenport. “We can’t prevent all injuries and that’s why we have the capabilities to get our athletes with an acute injury in quickly, take care of them and get them back as quickly as possible." She added, "There are some things we can do to optimize function and there are some injuries we can prevent. I focus on the three Ts – training, technique and tiredness.”

This segment aired on May 3, 2021.