The warrior athlete in 2020 — sports and military medicine in the era of COVID-19

Francis O’Connor MD, MPH (L) and Daniel Fosselman D.O. (R)

We have two special guests for our most recent podcast. This episode explores the impact of the novel SARS-CoV-2 on the clinicians in our world who have one foot in military medicine and the other in sports medicine.

Two physicians who care for ‘warrior athletes’ join us for this special podcast:  Francis O’Connor MD, MPH, Retd. Col. US Army and Daniel Fosselman D.O., Capt. US Army Reserve.

Dr. O’Connor is, among many other things, a past-President of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) and a current Professor at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, MD.  He is also the Medical Director of the Consortium for Health and Military Performance at the University, and he shares with us in the podcast the challenges of keeping a force of soldiers at the ready during this pandemic.  Dr. O’Connor like many is working through the intricacies of teaching over Zoom and is coming to grips with the impact of the virus on issues ranging from quarantine to ‘return to play’.  He reminds us that resting indefinitely on the sideline or playing in a ‘bubble’ are not options when it comes to national security.

Dr. Fosselman is a young sports medicine clinician who had just started his career in central Ohio in primary care sports medicine and family medicine when, as a Captain in the US Army Reserve, he was called up for duty.  We caught up with him as he was nearing the end of his two-week quarantine, which came on the tail of end of many weeks of service on the true front lines of the battle with this new foe:  in the hospitals of the Bronx, in the midst of the COVID spike that devastated the NYC area this spring.  His story is one of true service to patients and to his country.

I never take for granted the privilege I have in my role as Deputy Editor of CJSM to interact with truly global leaders and role models in the world of sports medicine.  This podcast, in particular, reminds me how fortunate we are in our sports medicine community to call so many of the contributors to this journal colleagues.

I enjoyed so much the opportunity to speak to these two inspiring physicians.  I hope you, too, enjoy listening to the podcast resulting from these conversations.

As ever, you can find this and all CJSM podcasts on iTunes [where you can subscribe to receive the podcast stream] or in the ‘media’ tab on our journal’s main website.

Thank you Drs. O’Connor and Fosselman.

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Addendum: The views expressed by individuals in this podcast are their own and may not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.