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Annual Meeting and Symposium on March 28-30, both the BOC CEO Denise Fandel and Board of Directors President Rusty McKune received honors. Fandel, who will be retiring from the BOC this spring, was honored by having an award renamed in her honor. The award formerly known as the “Ethnically Diverse and Female Recognition” award was renamed to “The Denise Fandel Award for Advocacy and Diversity. In addition, Rusty McKune was inducted into the MAATA Hall of Fame in recognition for his service and dedication to the athletic training profession.

In a 2009 National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) survey of a variety of industrial companies that had an AT on-site and kept return on investment (ROI) data, more than 90 percent of respondents showed that missed days of work decreased by 25 percent or more, emergency room costs reduced by 50 percent or more, and over half reported a decrease in costs associated with workplace injuries.3 In her white paper, Reducing Law Enforcement Costs Utilizing the Sports Medicine Model, Nancy C. Burke, MS, ATC, VATL from the Fairfax County Police Department sets out the effectiveness in her department’s usage of ATs to rehabilitate injured police officers. After the initial 9 months of the program in 2016, the SAFD documented $593,682.59 in cost savings; the initial capital outlay for equipment and annual salary at approximately $94,000 was recovered within the first quarter, which more than justified the creation of the full time AT position.6 Luis Rivera, PT, ATC took incorporating ATs into a fire department’s care plan a step further by incorporating them into a narrow concierge network. In 2017, the Milwaukee Fire Department saved $500,000 in emergency room visits alone by utilizing their full-time AT, and in their first year of operation in Memphis, their AT saved the MFD $1.3 million in overtime costs.7 In all of the programs mentioned, the availability of an AT to immediate assess injuries and begin treatment benefits firefighters and police officers. In a conversation with Gamaliel Baer, the Health and Wellness Coordinator, and Mike Goldsmith, the Department Specialist with the Howard County Fire and Rescue in Maryland, they described their new comprehensive health and wellness curriculum for their 26-week fire academy.

The Board of Certification for the Athletic Trainer (BOC) announces the appointment of Anne M. Minton, MBA as the organization’s new chief executive officer (CEO). Minton has been part of the BOC since 1998, beginning as director of operations before being promoted to assistant executive director (2007-2014); and associate executive director (2014-2018). During her career with the BOC, Minton lead the search for and renovation of the national headquarters building in downtown Omaha in 2008 and established 1415-The Meeting Space (the BOC’s downtown conference center). I look forward to working with the Board, staff and AT Strategic Alliance as we continue the growth and development of our mission, vision while advocating for Certified Athletic Trainers and the public they serve."

In Depth Look: Athletic Trainer for a Physical Therapy Clinic Dr. Heather Cramer, DAT, ATC is an Athletic Trainer (AT) with El Dorado Physical Therapy clinic in Folsom, California. She works alongside other ATs, physical therapists (PT) and physical therapy assistants (PTA) in providing care to patients in an orthopedic outpatient physical therapy clinic. Working in an outpatient physical therapy clinic, I treat patients from ages 3 to 99 who come to our clinic with a variety of orthopedic injuries, post-surgical, acute athletic injuries and chronic pain. I provide patient care in the form of manual therapy, neuromuscular re-education, strength and rehabilitation exercises, preventative exercises and biomechanical evaluation, along with recommendations for future strength and conditioning depending on what activities or work the patient is returning to.