Sports Medicine Advisory Committee, Dr. Michael J. Axe

Sports Medicine Advisory Committee, Dr. Michael J. Axe

Michael J. Axe, M.D.

Sports Medicine Advisory Committee, of the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association

The Sports Medicine Advisory Committee (SMAC) is one of the more than twenty committees under the umbrella of the DIAA. All of our meetings are publicly held.

The fundamental responsibility of the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee is to make recommendations that are guidelines, not rules to safely conduct athletic programs and competitions. The DIAA board makes the rules.

School superintendents, athletic directors and even school principals can choose to ignore our science (evidence) based recommendations of the SMAC made up of doctors, nurses, physical therapists, athletic trainers, athletic directors, and coaches.

To ignore our SMAC recommendations does assume legal responsibility or at least a conscious decision to assume medical responsibility. Unfortunately, in my experience this is too often purely a financial decision. For example, the cost of extending needed athletic training hours could be offset by repeat use of game gear for a year.

Four First State Orthopaedics physicians proudly serve on SMAC ( Drs.Jeremie Axe, Joseph Straight , Patrick Kane and I have been the Chair for many years )

DIAA website-