When Frank Noyes, MD, looks back on his career, he doesn’t just see surgeries or research papers. He sees thousands of young athletes — particularly female athletes — whose futures depended on whether their injuries could be prevented.
Dr. Noyes, an orthopedic surgeon and founder of the Cincinnati SportsMedicine and Orthopaedic Center, has established the Frank and JoAnne Noyes Award of Excellence through the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine.
The award recognizes research in injury prevention and recovery for female athletes — an area he says has long deserved more attention.
“It started when I was team physician at the University of Cincinnati, and I was operating on more females than males,” Dr. Noyes told Becker’s. “Something was wrong here with the coordination and fitness, and it just wasn’t right.”
The pattern prompted a 10-year research project that became Sportsmetrics, a neuromuscular training program designed to reduce knee injuries in female athletes.
“We put Sportsmetrics into 11 high schools in Cincinnati, and it worked,” he said. “It reduced the female ACL injuries and other injuries to the male counterpart.”
Since its primary introduction, Sportsmetrics has grown exponentially,
“It’s in almost 2,000 cities in the United States,” Dr. Noyes said. “And it is also in 18 international [locations]. We’ve introduced it just recently into Spain.”
Sportsmetrics, he said, succeeds because it’s both scientifically proven and accessible.
Dr. Noyes added the program operates as a nonprofit initiative that offers free apps and training materials to assess female athletes’ fitness. It includes both a pre-sport warmup routine and a more intensive six-week training course. He noted that athletes who complete the program build strength and improve coordination.
The program’s reach has continued to grow, particularly since going virtual during the pandemic.
“When COVID hit, we paused the program for a year, but we had so many people reaching out saying, ‘We need this,’” Dr. Noyes said. “So we asked ourselves if we could take it virtual — and we did. Now participants can log in from anywhere in the country. They no longer have to travel to Cincinnati, which makes the program far more affordable and accessible.”
During the sessions, trainers observe participants via video and offer real-time feedback.
“We’d like them to jump and land like a cat — really, really in control,” he said. “It’s just amazing to me that we can do it virtually, and it’s been a great blessing.”
Despite its success, Dr. Noyes said female injury prevention is still underfunded.
“Right now, only about 10% of schools have specific injury prevention programs for female athletes,” he said. “Trainers are so busy treating injuries that prevention often gets pushed aside.”
Parents, Dr. Noyes said, often help bring the program to schools. Many discover Sportsmetrics after their own child experiences an ACL injury and push athletic directors to adopt it.
He added that professional organizations have reinforced its importance.
“The American Academy of Pediatrics said it in 2014. The Olympic Committee, the American Physical Therapy Association — all of these governing bodies have said that this is an important area for support,” Dr. Noyes said.
Still, reinjury after ACL surgery remains one of orthopedics’ biggest challenges.
“When a female gets ACL surgery, they still have up to a 22% to 25% chance of an ACL injury on that knee or the other knee,” he said. “That’s one of the highest failure rates of all orthopedic surgery.”
To address it, his team is offering Sportsmetrics free to patients recovering from ACL surgery.
“I think there’s every reason to believe it will work to prevent reinjury — but we haven’t proven that yet,” Dr. Noyes said.
He hopes the new research — and the award named in his honor — will inspire future leaders.
“We’ve trained 190 sports medicine fellows who are now practicing across the country,” Dr. Noyes said. “We’ve tried to set an example that sports medicine is about preventing injuries as much as treating them. As surgeons, you eventually realize that maybe you don’t have to perform the surgery — maybe you can prevent it.”
Looking ahead, his goals remain ambitious.
“First, every female athlete should have a specialized physical — our own little combine — to determine whether she’s fit to compete,” he said. “Second, those who don’t pass should complete a six-week injury prevention program. And third, we need to focus on preventing reinjury through neuroplasticity — training the brain.”
For Dr. Noyes, the mission is clear.
“It’s taken decades,” he said. “But we’ve learned that preventing the injury is every bit as important as repairing it.”
