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Sport and Exercise Medicine (MCISc)
Preparing physiotherapists and physicians to lead in sport injury and exercise medicine.
Sport and Exercise Medicine (MCISc)
Preparing physiotherapists and physicians to lead in sport injury and exercise medicine.
Sport and Exercise Medicine (MCISc)
Preparing physiotherapists and physicians to lead in sport injury and exercise medicine.
(MCISc)
About Sport and Exercise Medicine
The Sport and Exercise Medicine field prepares physiotherapists and physicians in the pillars of advanced practice to deliver advanced clinical care in sport injury and exercise medicine environments. Build your profile as leader, communicator, collaborator, health advocate, scholar and professional while developing sport and exercise medicine expertise.
Through a combination of in-person and remote learning, you will develop clinical skills, research capacity, and depth of knowledge to assess, evaluate and manage the rehabilitation of elite athletes and the wider population. You will learn from a team of multidisciplinary experts who work, teach and conduct research in sport and exercise medicine as part of their daily practice.
- Program Name: Advanced Health Care Practice
- Field: Sport and Exercise Medicine (Clinical)
- Faculty: Health Sciences
- Application Deadline: April 30th
- Contact: ahcp@uwo.ca
Why Choose Sport and Exercise Medicine at Western?
Learn Through a Leading Clinical-Academic Partnership
This program is offered through a partnership between one of Canada's leading sport and exercise medicine centres, the Fowler Kennedy Sport Medicine Clinic, and Western University's School of Physical Therapy, building on their shared commitment to excellence in teaching, research and patient care. The result is a unique clinical mentorship and learning experience for sport and exercise medicine professionals looking to expand their competencies and credentials.
Advance Your Degree and Credentials
Program graduates gain specialized training in sport and exercise medicine that leads to a Master of Clinical Science (MClSc) degree in Advanced Health Care Practice (Sport and Exercise Medicine) as well as the opportunity to prepare for field-specific credentials external to the program. Depending on their professional pathway, students may prepare to pursue Sport Physiotherapy Canada Diploma requirements or challenge the CASEM Diploma examination. The curriculum also includes First Responder for Healthcare Professionals and Stop the Bleed certification.
Become a Leader in Sport and Exercise Medicine
University-based training integrating the four pillars of advanced health care practice is quickly becoming the industry standard for those pursuing opportunities in the highest levels of sport and exercise medicine. Integrated multidisciplinary learning at an advanced-level of practice in the specialized area of sport and exercise medicine will position graduates of the program to seek advanced accreditation, recognition, and opportunities, nationally and internationally.
Is Sport and Exercise Medicine Right for You?
Designed for physiotherapists and physicians in search of advanced-level knowledge and skills in sport and exercise medicine, this program lets professionals learn together, and from each other, toward the shared goal of providing contemporary enhanced patient care in sport and exercise medicine. The ideal candidates for the program are:
Experienced Physiotherapists and Physicians
Experienced physiotherapists and physicians seeking advanced level mentorship in sport physiotherapy and sport medicine.
Clinicians Pursuing Advanced Competencies
Those with some direct practice experience in sport physiotherapy and sport medicine who would like to acquire the competencies defined by national and international standards.
Information Sessions
SEM Field Lead
Greg Alcock
MSc (PT), BHSc (PT), BA Hons (PE), Dip. Manip., FCAMPT
Greg is Physiotherapy Director at the Fowler Kennedy Sport Medicine Clinic and Field Lead for Western’s Sport and Exercise Medicine master’s program. His work spans clinical care, event coverage, applied research and professional education. A Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Manipulative Physiotherapists, Greg is also an instructor, examiner and mentor in the Canadian Physiotherapy Association’s orthopaedic education system. His research focuses on lower-extremity conditions, injury prevention and return-to-sport rehabilitation.
Program Structure
Offered on a full-time basis, this programs utilizes a combination of in-person and remote learning to help students balance the academic demands of the programs with the professional and personal demands on their lives.
Term 1 (Fall)
September–December
- Critical Appraisal of Health Literature
- Advanced Management in Sport and Exercise Medicine 1: Lower Quadrant
- Includes on-campus component
- Clinical Mentorship
Term 2 (Winter)
January–April
- Advanced Management in Sport and Exercise Medicine 2: Upper Quadrant
- Clinical Mentorship (continued)
- Research Experience
Term 3 (Summer)
May–August
- Advanced Professional Practice
- Clinical Mentorship (continued)
- Research Experience (continued)
- Includes Research Day
The program's case-based learning approach allows for interactive small group clinical mentoring and learning to engage and clinically reason with Sport and FCAMPT physiotherapists, CASEM Sport Medicine physicians, orthopaedic surgeons (sport medicine and paediatric), emergency physicians, Ear Nose and Throat (ENT), opthamology, dentistry, sport scientists, ultra-sonographers, and other experts from a variety of sport-related disciplines. Students in the program acquire competencies in sport and exercise medicine to help provide care for athlete's spanning the spectrum from pediatric, adult, elite and special populations on the field or in the clinic. Graduates are prepared to provide advanced level care to MSK injuries in highly specialized clinical environments, sideline coverage, throughout clinical recovery and return to sport training environments that reflect clinical best practice and evidence.
For Physiotherapists
The framework of advanced practice is used to develop graduates as leaders, communicators, collaborators, health advocates and scholars while covering International Sports and Exercise Physiotherapy Association (ISEPA formerly IFSPT) and Sport Physiotherapy Canada (SPC) competencies. This degree contains a First Responder for Healthcare Professionals, and Stop the Bleed certification by American College of Surgeons, credentialling embedded within the curriculum. A subset of these competencies will prepare physiotherapist graduates to challenge SPC’s Certification and Diploma external to the program.
For Advanced Standing Physiotherapists
This pathway allows physiotherapists who have obtained their Sport Physiotherapy Canada (SPC) Diploma to receive credit for their practical experience while continuing professional growth and career development obtaining an Advanced Health Care Practice Master’s degree in Sport and Exercise Medicine. Graduates can continue on in their career development as leaders, teachers and innovators in a variety of roles requiring advanced competencies and credentialling.
Physiotherapists who already possess the Sport Physiotherapy Canada Diploma will receive advanced standing for the following courses (will not be required to take but are able to audit):
- Advanced Management in Sport and Exercise Medicine 1: Lower Quadrant
- Advanced Management in Sport and Exercise Medicine 2: Upper Quadrant
- Transformational Topics in Sport and Exercise Medicine
- Clinical Mentorship
Course requirements will focus on:
- Research Methods (AHCP9600)
- Advanced Professional Practice (AHCP9610)
- Research Experience (AHCP9630)
For Physicians
The program is based on the Canadian Academy for Sport and Exercise Medicine (CASEM) competencies and International Federation of Sports Medicine (IFSM) code of ethics. The framework of advanced practice is used to develop graduates as leaders, communicators, collaborators, health advocates and scholars while covering competencies that prepare the graduating physician to challenge the CASEM Diploma exam (external to the program). This degree also has the First Responder for Healthcare Professionals and Stop the Bleed certification by American College of Surgeons credentialling embedded within the curriculum.
Through a Continuing Professional Development framework, this course facilitates the synthesis of the theoretical and practical aspects of a student’s development in Sport and Exercise Medicine through a period of mentorship within the work-based/practice environment and documented with a professional portfolio. Students will have the opportunity to work in a variety of settings to enable development of existing knowledge and skills and advanced practice. The Clinical Mentor(s) will enable a student’s development through a partnership of teaching; researching; managing; observing and discussing with innovative practice being encouraged within the framework of safe, legal, and ethical practice as made explicit in any applicable published standards (e.g. professional registration body, specialist competencies etc). Clinical mentorship for this field would come from a variety of sport and exercise medicine practitioners who are willing to act as mentors.
The student will undertake pre-mentorship preparation through an online half-day study day, and online preparatory reflective exercise of self evaluation. Students will undertake a minimum of 150 hours of experience in a work-based/practice/field environment. Learning needs may necessitate a range of environments as part of the mentored experience to ensure that all outcomes are achieved. The selection of the work-based environment is negotiated by the student in collaboration with the field leader, dependent upon their individual learning needs and their program field and any specialist requirements. A variety of patterns of delivery of the 150 hours experience are possible, encompassing part time and full time modes as well as a variety of models of experience e.g. clinical practice, observation of practice, case analysis, situational online clinical reasoning, telehealth, e-mentoring, face-to-face mentoring etc. Current registration with appropriate professional/regulatory bodies is required as appropriate to the negotiated mentored practice.
For future challenging of Sport Physiotherapy Canada's certification and diploma exam, physiotherapist students will be required to complete the following field experiences as part of their mentored clinical practice and these requirements will be included in their learning contract additional to the mentorship:
- Minimum 300 hours
- Minimum six different sports inclusive of:
- Two contact/combat/collision sports for minimum of 75 hrs each
- The equivalent of two different sports followed for a full season
Students are responsible for securing their own SPC-registered clinical mentor(s).
Upon successfully completing the program, students should have the ability to:
- Critically analyze and integrate the principles underpinning sport and exercise medicine to inform interventions that optimize activity/performance for persons/athletes
- Evaluate clinical history and examination findings to inform individualized athlete/client-centred acute emergency management/triage, management and rehabilitation within a biopsychosocial and interdisciplinary framework
- Implement and justify evidence-informed management and rehabilitation interventions to optimize activity/performance
- Synthesize knowledge, skills and attributes to demonstrate advanced practice in sport and exercise medicine
- Develop research skills enabling active participation and competency in clinical research
- Communicate and apply ethical principles and practices in patient care and research activities
- Develop communication strategies that foster therapeutic alliance and shared decision-making with the person/athlete
- Develop iterative self-reflection skills and continued life-long learning
In Their Words
Lesley Kukoly, Master’s of Clinical Science Alumni (SEM)
It has really built on my clinical reasoning skills, my injury management skills, and then my interpersonal skills both with the patient and with all the different colleagues that I get to work with on a daily basis.
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