Disclosures: James B. Meiling, DO: No financial relationships or conflicts of interest
Objective: To assess the involvement and inclusion of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) in Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) accredited Primary Care Sports Medicine (PCSM) fellowships by surveying the current program directors (PDs) around the nation.
Design: Survey
Setting : N/A
Participants : 41 PCSM Program Directors
Interventions: N/A
Main Outcome Measures: Survey responses
Results: According to the 2020 NRMP PCSM Match Results, only 23 of 208 (11%) PCSM fellowships are classified as PM&R Sports Medicine, 6 of which completed this survey. Of the remaining 35 PDs who responded to the survey, 17 (49%) interview and accept PM&R residents. 6 (17%) currently have PM&R fellows and 12 (34%) have had a PM&R fellow. 2 (6%) have dedicated PM&R fellowship spots. Of the responding non-PM&R PCSM fellowships, 16 (46%) have PM&R faculty and 1 (3%) has a PM&R PD.
Conclusions: Each of the 208 ACGME-accredited PCSM fellowships are housed under 1 of 4 departments – Family Medicine (FM), PM&R, Pediatrics, or Emergency Medicine (EM) – with 76% within FM. These fellowships accept applicants from FM, PM&R, Pediatrics, EM, or Internal Medicine; however, each program differs regarding which specialties they interview and accept. For PM&R applicants, it can be difficult to ascertain whether they will fit in with non-PM&R PCSM programs. PM&R-specific PCSM fellowships make up a minority of ACGME-accredited PCSM programs. If the preliminary results are predictive of the whole, then less than half of the 89% non-PM&R programs interview PM&R-trained applicants, and less than 20% of these programs currently have a PM&R-trained fellow. Future studies should investigate PM&R resident success into matching into non-PM&R programs as well as reasons why PDs do not interview PM&R resident candidates.
Level of Evidence: Level III
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
Meiling JB, Barndt B, Raum GM. The Involvement and Inclusion of Physiatry in ACGME-Accredited Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowships: Preliminary Results from a National Survey of Fellowship Program Directors [abstract]. PM R. 2020; 12(S1)(suppl 1). https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/the-involvement-and-inclusion-of-physiatry-in-acgme-accredited-primary-care-sports-medicine-fellowships-preliminary-results-from-a-national-survey-of-fellowship-program-directors/. Accessed May 31, 2025.« Back to AAPM&R Annual Assembly 2020
PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/the-involvement-and-inclusion-of-physiatry-in-acgme-accredited-primary-care-sports-medicine-fellowships-preliminary-results-from-a-national-survey-of-fellowship-program-directors/