Drs. Gary Wilkerson and Marisa Colston have established a professional relationship with sports medicine physicians and physiotherapists in Guatemala. Last summer the UTC Health and Human Performance professor and associate professor visited the country in a trip coordinated by Athletes in Action, a sports ministry headquartered in Ohio.
“The primary purpose of the week-long visit was to provide lectures on topics pertaining to sports injury prevention and treatment for physicians and physiotherapists who work with the Guatemalan Olympic Committee and Sports Confederation,” said Wilkerson, who has been visiting the country since 2006.
Wilkerson and Colston were also asked to meet with team physicians for the Guatemala professional soccer league.
“At their request, we are planning to arrange monthly one-hour videoconferences to present the history and clinical management of various types of sports injuries,” Wilkerson said.
Wilkerson and Colston will present information pertaining to the relationship between trunk muscle fatigue-resistance and susceptibility to lower extremity joint injuries at the first videoconference. In a subsequent videoconference there will be a presentation on evaluation and management of concussions in soccer.
Most of the Guatemalan physicians are orthopedic surgeons and Wilkerson plans to include presentations from the Chattanooga-area orthopedic surgeons who work closely with the program at UTC.
The professional soccer team physicians and Guatemalan Olympic Committee and Sports Confederation team physicians are very knowledgeable in many areas, however, sports injury care in Guatemala is less sophisticated than that provided in the United States, Wilkerson said.
