In the event that podcasts aren’t your thing or you just prefer to read information than listen to it, here’s a recap of our Business in Athletic Training podcast:

We spoke with NATA president, Scott Sailor, who said:

“there’s a tremendous amount of business opportunity in athletic training and we really haven’t taken advantage of those opportunities due to our lack of education in that area.”

We spoke with Mr. Sailor at length about emerging technologies and their application to athletic training. We beg the questions, how can we incorporate them into what we do on a daily basis; and how can we make ourselves more efficient by the utilization of these technologies?

• Twitter – a space to publicly display information and avoid having direct contact with potential minors.
• Text Messages/ Cell Phones – ability to communicate more effectively than radios or other previously used technologies
• Tablets – classroom & clinical applications for advancing educational opportunities and making clinical time for interactive
• Google Voice numbers – separate, professional phone number than can be forwarded directly to your cell number. It helps create a separation between professional & personal lives.
• Social media – because we can now speak directly to our audience (instead of needing to go through a media outlet or journalist), the knowledge of athletic trainers has grown
• Evernote – an electonic note taking platform that is searchable, sharable, connects over all devices. Makes organization much more convenient and efficient.

Being in the business of athletic training, we know that it can come across as a dry topic for most others. So we asked, how do we make athletic training more engaging? Here are Mr. Sailor’s thoughts…

• We need to understand, athletic trainers ARE in business. In fact, we are wedged between two of this biggest industries in our nation: sports & healthcare.
• There needs to be a way for entrepreneurial athletic trainers to make themselves more available to the public.
  • For example, in a cash pay/ direct pay business model where ATs have a “clinic” to manage the gap between where PT leaves off (return to daily activities) and where sports/ athletics pick up (return to play). 
• We have to help ATs see themselves in situations beyond traditional practices
  • Helping a newly graduated AT know what tools they can market to the public or future employers about themselves.
  • How do they add value? Understanding the value add model and the risk management aspect of athletic training.

The take away points from the podcast are:

• We are a unique health care provider with an amazing skill set that the public can benefit from and we need to value that.
• What we do as athletic trainers cannot be done by anyone else
• Increasing your business acumen is not only a good idea, but a recommendation from our NATA president

 

If you’d like to listen to the podcast in its entirety, you can do that here.

Please feel free to send us your questions or comments on any of our social medias, facebook, twitter, and instagram @theATvantage or use #QandAT.