Do hospital sponsorships affect how physicians approach sports medicine? 9 insights

Orthopedic Sports Medicine

UC San Diego Health pays the San Diego Padres approximately $1 million a year to be the "official healthcare provider of the San Diego Padres," according to an article in The San Diego Union-Tribune. This begs the questions as to whether sponsorship affects how physicians provide sports medicine care.

Here's what you should know.

 

1. Sporting events provide unmatched marketing abilities. The Union-Tribune says health providers routinely make six-digit deals for exclusive marketing rights to the team's fans.

 

2. The Union-Tribune examined if the partnerships could create conflicts of interest with a physician and the team's players. The Padres and UC San Diego both deny that being the case.

 

3. Catherine Robertson, MD, Padres head team physician, said the physicians would never clear a player that was "not fit to play or when he's at risk of significant injury."

 

4. Padres' General Manager A.J. Preller said to the Union-Tribune the team based its decision largely on physicians' backgrounds and resumes.

 

5. The San Diego Padres and with UC San Diego jointly contract UC San Diego physicians. American Medical Society for Sports Medicine President Matt Gammons, MD, said that contract structure avoids any possible conflicts of interest.

 

"Physicians who are not on sports teams' payrolls likely will not fear getting fire if their decisions don't agree with the desires of those teams' bosses," Mr. Gammons said to the Union-Tribune.

 

6. However, if a team employs a physician, it could possibly create a conflict.

 

7. Team sponsorships help medical organizations attract patients, according to Los Angeles-based USC Marshall Sports Business Institute Executive Director David Carter.

 

8. Two university-based ethics experts don't believe the sponsorship agreements are ethical red flags, but they agreed medical-only contracts are more ethical.

 

9. Several athletes go out of the sponsors network to seek care, eliminating another possibly conflict of interest.

 

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