Sports Medicine

Pictured: Dr. Gale Prentiss, Dr. Mark Santi, Dr. Nick Crawford, Dr. Justin Young.
University of Hawai’i sports medicine MDs at the Hawaiʻi vs. Ohio State football game.

The Division of Sports Medicine provides enhanced opportunities in the clinical, research, and educational components of sports medicine and exercise science. The evolution of sports medicine into a medical specialty has paralleled a boom in sports participation at all age levels, and findings that regular physical exercise helps to prevent and treat numerous medical conditions. The mission of the Division of Sports Medicine is to develop academic distinction in the multidisciplinary field of sports medicine through excellence in education, research, patient care, and community service.

Through the Sports Medicine Fellowship, the division provides sports medicine education for medical students and residents. Educational opportunities may also be offered to students in kinesiology, exercise physiology, athletic training, and physical therapy. The division engages in collaborative research among the multidisciplinary fields of sports medicine in such areas as sports injury management and prevention, musculoskeletal basic science, physical therapy and rehabilitation, exercise physiology, wellness and preventive medicine, nutrition, sports psychology, epidemiology, and complementary medicine. 

The division’s fellowship training program offers clinical services including sports medicine, athletic team medical care, orthopaedic surgery, sports physical therapy and rehabilitation, sports psychology, and nutrition. The division also serves as a resource for the dissemination of sports medicine and exercise science-related information for the University and the state of Hawai‘i.