NATA Now

NATA welcomes its newest Preferred Provider Go4Ellis, a mobile platform created by NXTsports to improve youth sports safety by making it easier to directly connect athletic trainers with per diem opportunities at youth sporting events. This app allows event operators or anyone looking for an athletic trainer to provide on-site health care during a game, practice or tournament to post the event details to the platform. ATs can search the available per diem opportunities and pick those that suit their availability.

NATA has launched the Sports Medicine Legal Digest, a new quarterly digital magazine focused on legal issues affecting athletic trainers and other sports medicine health care professionals. The first issue contains 12 pages of content related to liability and professional responsibility, including current case summaries, a Q&A with an athletic trainer/lawyer and a column about the importance of standing orders written by members of the NATA Professional Responsibility Committee.

The United States Bone and Joint Initiative (USBJI) and Bone and Joint Canada are dedicated to increasing research of musculoskeletal diseases. To keep pace with the high and increasing burden of these diseases, a higher level of research performed by young investigators in the musculoskeletal diseases is required, and future levels of research assured. This is particularly important given the current environment for research funding, and academic careers.

During the 68th NATA Clinical Symposia & AT Expo this June in Houston, NATA will induct seven more esteemed athletic trainers into its Hall of Fame. These seven individuals—John Anderson, MS, ATC, Fran Babich, MS, ATC, Tanya Dargusch, LAT, ATC, Katherine Dieringer, EdD, LAT, ATC, MaryBeth Horodyski, LAT, ATC, FNATA, Jeffrey McKibbin, MEd, LAT, ATC, and Michael O’Shea, MA, ATC, LAT—exemplify what it means to live a life of service, and were featured in the May NATA News.

A staple of the NATA Clinical Symposia & AT Expo, the NATA Research & Education Foundation 5K Fueled by Gatorade will take place this year at 6 a.m. June 29 during NATA 2017 in Houston. Not only is this a great opportunity to get outdoors and be active, it’s also your chance to give back to the NATA Foundation and support it’s many initiatives.

We are proud to announce the launch of the NATA international conference funding initiative. This program supports athletic training scientists and clinicians who wish to present their research or intellectual content at conferences or symposia outside of the United States. The financial assistance provided by this program will increase global recognition of the profession and the role athletic trainers play in prevention and rehabilitation.

The Sports Medicine Licensure Clarity Act (S. 808), has just been re-introduced in the U.S. Senate by Sens. John Thune (R-SD) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN). The house version of the bill, H.R. 302, passed in the U.S. House of Representatives on January 9 of this year only three days after being reintroduced.

By Scott Sailor

President, National Athletic Trainers' Association

Today's athletes are like finely tuned machines: Every aspect of their physiology is carefully worked over, each variance in the athlete's condition diligently noted. As athletic trainers, we are the tireless architects behind an athlete's health, both on and off the field.

By Dan Newman, MS, LAT, ATC

Do you Tweet? Do you Facebook? Do you Instagram? How about Snapchat? If those four simple questions leave you scratching your head, then you are in the minority. Today, there is more than 2.3 billion, yes billion with a “B,” people using some sort of social media. Social media has taken over every aspect of our lives. From creating and ordering groceries to posting pictures of the family reunion and even help planning a family, there is not one aspect of your daily lives that has not or cannot be affected by social media.

Last weekend NATA staff conducted interviews with current and former Seattle Mariners players Ken Griffey Jr., Robinson Cano, Felix Hernandez, Kyle Seager, Steve Cishek and Hisashi Iwakuma. During the interviews, players discussed the important role that athletic trainers played in their careers. We also talked with the head AT for the Seattle Mariners, Rick Griffin, about how athletic trainers reduce risk for players at every level.