Director of Sports Medicine and Athletic Training at Illinois Bone and Joint Institute

Matt Repa

Matt Repa is the director of sports medicine and athletic training at Illinois Bone and Joint Institute. He has been associated with the institution since 2004 and has been practicing orthopedics with the institute since 200, when he received his bachelor's degree in athletic training and physical education. His main clinical focus is on throwing programs for baseball players, who are evaluated before and after each game to determine whether they have taken necessary measures to correct any strain or injury. Matt believes that with technology in the market, it is easier to evaluate and diagnose these athletes to help make better and safer return-to-play or returned activity decisions.

What according to you as some of the challenges plaguing the sports medicine and athletic training service and how they can be effectively mitigated?

We face challenges in every service industry. Our combination of installation and staffing challenges make it harder for our work to be human. Technology has helped us out to an extent, but there’s still a gap between technology and skill quality providers. It can be hard to provide quality outcomes with value based outcomes when you have staffing shortages and attrition rates are very high.

“I think technology plays a role in speeding up the correct access point to the correct provider. So you’re not wasting your time on cross-referencing, if we could connect it directly right away”

What technological trends and advancements have you observed in the sports medicine and athletic training sector over the last couple of years?

I think that access to data and speed are the two crucial components of sports medicine. Athletes and their coaches must be able to receive a thorough analysis in a timely manner. Robots and portable X-ray machines or even a spit test to check concussion can also be used to train your players if you’re looking for new approaches. Other technological developments, such as live analytics programs that record performance data from players’ activities during practice sessions are also being conducted by third party groups like Amazon. There is a boom in technology and valuable data. However, the challenge is to identify enough qualified skill providers who could really interpret data and then implement an outcome that is consistent with the data.

How do you envision the future of sports medicine and athletic training services in a few years?

I believe it is a combination of solutions at different levels. From the payer’s viewpoint, they want to pay for performance. In order to be able to pay for performance and achieve strong results, you must have quality employees and skilled staff to address it and deliver the quality results. I consider that technology assists in the acceleration of the right access point to the right provider. This is a big achievement. Also, healthcare technology is still in its early stages. So, we are witnessing a huge wave of hope. We were otherwise heading in a downward direction, fortunately everyone is secure as a result of the onslaught of virtual and telemedicine. I believe that a large portion of it is here to stay to integrate all that information to match the appropriate patient with the appropriate provider. That’s a blend I expect to see in the years ahead, especially in the orthopedic and sports medicine field, where insurers will guide patients to doctors who deliver high-quality results. As a result, there will be little to no readmissions, re-injury rates.

Do you have any advice for the industry veterans or budding entrepreneurs from the sports medicine and athletic training services arena?

My advice would be to specialize at customer service, both on the B2B and B2C ends, even though you could have excellent technology but anyone hardly knows how to utilize it from a provider’s standpoint. So, my main advice is to provide exceptional customer service because ease of use is something that the market needs right now.