Mercy Health Provides Lower Extremity Baseline Testing to High School Athletes

Mercy Health - Cincinnati, which provides advanced, quality, compassionate care in your neighborhood through its care network, announces that high school student athletes in the Mason area will receive lower extremity baseline testing that will help physicians, athletic trainers, student athletes and their parents know if the athlete has any significant lower extremity asymmetries that can predispose him or her to a higher risk of injury and when an injured student can return to play safely.

Mercy Health’s Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine team will perform the lower extremity baseline assessment of student athletes from the Mason area from 3:30-8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 19 at Wall2Wall Soccer, located at 846 Reading Road in Mason, OH 45040.

Mercy Health anticipates that 300 students who take part in high school sports in the Mason area will attend the testing session.

Mercy Health is scheduling more baseline testing dates throughout Greater Cincinnati including Deer Park High School on May 17, Fairfield High School on May 22, Milford High School on May 31 and Harrison High School, the Forest Hills School District high schools and Elder High School in the summer months

This is the second year that Mercy Health is offering the free testing program, which is modelled on the NFL Combine, to high schoolers in the region.

“Lower extremity baseline testing in high school athletic programs is essential to orthopedic injury management,” said Denver Stanfield, MD, medical director, Mercy Health Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine. “Baseline testing allows us to recognize potential injuries before they happen and train the athlete accordingly to prevent injury so he or she enjoys the best possible high school sports career. It also gives us the ability to compare an injured athlete’s data to his or her pre-injury norm so we know when that athlete has healed fully and can return to play safely.”

Lower extremity injuries are bone, joint, muscle and soft tissue injuries to the legs, knees and feet and include anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, injuries.

During the baseline testing, a team of Mercy Health’s sports medicine professionals work together with the students’ strength and conditioning coaches, athletic trainers and coaching staff to evaluate the athletes under normal conditions before an injury occurs. The battery of tests provides an assessment of the students’ performance in high intensity running and cutting sports.

Mercy Health already provides baseline testing for concussion management and also offers heart screenings to student athletes at its 30-plus partner schools and expanded its baseline testing for students to include lower extremity baseline testing with great success last year. Over 850 athletes from six area high school took advantage of this service last year.

Mercy Health is the source for the most comprehensive sports medicine care in Cincinnati, with an easily accessible network of healthcare professionals providing the most modern care available for athletes of all levels; athletic trainer coverage for over 30 local high schools and colleges, multiple club sports and performing arts organizations, including the Cincinnati Bengals, Miami Red Hawks and the Cincinnati Ballet; outpatient rehabilitation with special attention to restoring function; injury prevention training; performance training and an ongoing commitment to education and research. Its high school partners benefit from the most robust school partnership in the region.