Ready, set, go! Sports medicine on and off the field

Team and event physicians can play an important role in ensuring the medical safety of a sports event by several actions: analyzing common injuries particular to a sport and planning accordingly in terms of equipment and procedures, establishing a hierarchy of the team's staff (ie, who has the authority to take a player out of the game), organizing medical equipment, establishing communication among the support personnel, considering crowd-control techniques for large events, arranging accessible transportation to a nearby medical facility, and being alert to possible dangerous weather conditions. Athletes will be safer, physicians more secure, and sports events more successful if these precautions are primary.