KANSAS CITY, Mo – The National Football League has announced the 2024 year of its Sports Medicine Diversity Pipeline Initiative.
The league-wide program was introduced in 2022 and aims to increase the pool of scholars from diverse backgrounds in sports medicine.
Jessica Nelson, a fourth-year medical student at the University of Kansas City, one of 29 scholars selected from 21 medical schools across the country.
All were paired with an NFL team to be briefed under the direction of the club’s sports doctors.
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Nelson teamed up with the Minnesota Vikings, his hometown team.
“It’s great to have the opportunity to work with the team that I grew up watching and idolizing,” Nelson said. “It’s wonderful to be able to work with doctors and receive information directly from them. And they serve as mentors to me,” because when I move into sports medicine in the future, I’ll be able to build on the things that I was informed about during the month I’m in the NFL.
Nelson hopes projects like this will break down trade barriers and provide opportunities for more people and minorities.
“A lot of other people can get informed from it and do activities that they probably wouldn’t do traditionally,” Nelson said.
Experts say doctor-patient appointments are difficult in the healthcare sector.
Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Bryan Beutel says systems like this are because patients’ good luck depends on them.
“The consensus is that certainly if you can have a more diverse workforce in health care, for example in this case, that better reflects the patient population that you serve, patient satisfaction scores overlook, the point of accepting the same goes for what patients are also feeling. It’s increasing, and in doing so, in many ways, directly and indirectly, better outcomes are achieved for patients,” Beutel said.
According to a task called Zippia, sports medicine is 74% male and 65% white.
Beutel says the reasons are ancient and social, but he hopes more organizations and medical schools will follow suit for the sake of future generations.
“I think it’s vital that they open the door to that so that more people can be identified and included in the future,” Nelson said.
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