Student travel is amazing. I regularly talk with high-school-age students who have never left the Greater Houston Area Jeff Hopp has decided to give up his time off during the summer to take students on trips over the summer.

How did you get started with student travel?

I went on a few trips with my wife as a chaperone since she is a teacher.

My role with EF Tours is to recruit kids and build excitement around the trip.

We offer it to our students AT Aides, Health Science students IB program.

The trips are educational but are mostly about opening people up to travel, culture, and people.

Where were you this summer?

Summer 24 – Ireland, England, and Paris

Where else have you been?

January 23 – Training Trip to Belize

Summer 23 – Costa Rica

Training trips allow you to learn how the trips work.

They are fast-paced and go, go, go

The tour directors pretty much run everything once it starts.

Plane – England – bus – castle – hotel

Wake up early and hit another landmark, a sheepdog demonstration, a bog farm…

Typically from breakfast at 8 am to dinner you are up and going.

Usually a different hotel each night.

On our last day in Paris, I walked 12 miles.

My training trip was in Belize for 5 days

We went to Costa Rica with 25 students

January 2023 – Belize (training trip)

2023 – Costa Rica

2024 – Ireland England

2025 – Italy Greece

2026 – Thailand Cambodia

What company do you use?

EF Tours

1 chaperone travels for free for every 6 kids that pay.

With 30 people you get a private tour.

Why do you spend your summers with students?

These are typically students we would be around all year.  Our trips are not open campus-wide.  Students have become accustomed to the trips.  The kids come into the year looking forward to the opportunity.

Pros and cons of student travel?

We took phones away at dinner and then the kids opened up.  They got noisy at dinner because they were talking to each other, bonding, and creating memories.

As an Athletic Trainer you might have summer duties, so traveling with students could eat into the few weeks you have at home.

My wife was gone for 10 days and she got back at the same time I was leaving for my trip.  We missed half of the summer together.

Get started on your student travels:

https://forms.gle/TjWqkh923cumhYVL8

These people LOVE Athletic Trainers and help support the podcast:

Frio Hydration – Superior Hydration products.

Donate and get some swag (like Patreon but for the school)

HOIST – No matter your reason for dehydration DRINK HOIST

MedBridge Education – Use “TheSMB” to save some money, be entered in a drawing for a second year free, and support the podcast.

Marc Pro – Use “THESMB” to recover better.

Athletic Dry Needling – Save up to $100 when registering through our link.

AI Motion Capture can be a game-changer for orthopedics. Dr. Adam Whitman of Medbridge discusses how we can benefit and what we have to be careful of when using AI Motion Capture.

Everything has AI now, what does motion capture with AI mean?

AI has been around since the internet started.

As hardware improves so can the calculations the computers can do.

Self-driving cars example – cows falling from abridge…what would you do vs what would a computer do?

AI does really well in processing huge amounts of data rapidly and consistently.

The physics problems in movement patterns allow for AI to be used for growth and improvement.

The machine has to be fed.

ROM is easy to capture and accurately measure.

The computer is limited in cases like spinal movement.

Theoretical AI Motion Capture concepts

Look at the FMS – they are built to be read against functional norms.  It has been confirmed against many hundreds of thousands of instances.

We are looking for the potential for injury.

Think about scapular winging…it is like building a house on a concrete foundation vs building on a swamp…which one is built to last.

Some algorithms are being fed based on info so they begin looking for biased outcomes.

One AI model determining which patients should be prioritized from an insurance standpoint became racist because it was being fed biased information.

The algorithmic process can remove the bias when it is fed comprehensive data.

ChatGPT is now its own prompt engineer that allows you to ask average questions and get really good answers.

I look forward to when we can feed the movement into the machine and let it run its analysis without our input.

Think about re-captcha…computers are still bad at identifying objects in pictures.  Humans are still needed.

Your movement analysis is your movement fingerprint. That can become a movement profile with each new recording.

What does that look like for the Athletic Trainer?

Emphasis on prevention of injury to the athlete as opposed to reaction-based interventions – reduce the likelihood of an ankle sprain or ACL tear by catching fault movement patterns before the injury occurs

Contact Us:

Dr. Adam Whitman – [email protected]

Jeremy Jackson – @SportsMedicineBroadcast on IG

These people LOVE Athletic Trainers and help support the podcast:

Frio Hydration – Superior Hydration products.

Donate and get some swag (like Patreon but for the school)

HOIST – No matter your reason for dehydration DRINK HOIST

MedBridge Education – Use “TheSMB” to save some money, be entered in a drawing for a second year free, and support the podcast.

Marc Pro – Use “THESMB” to recover better.

Athletic Dry Needling – Save up to $100 when registering through our link.

Digital Health is revolutionizing healthcare. Adam Whitman, now with Medbridge, was a practicing clinician for 12 years including running a concierge PT service for NFL athletes.

Adapting to Emerging Tech

(listen to my recent recording with Casey and Kim)

I have my hands in most aspects of the company

More recently I have been focused on improvement in remote care possibilities.

Demand for healthcare is growing

More and more providers are getting burned out and leaving the profession

Are you trying to take my job?

All of our movement assessment uses AI

AI has greatly improved since the beginning of the internet…but it’s still a tool for you to do your job.

With billable hours telehealth was a real problem.

What led to the burnout?

Documentation

Lack of income

But it was honestly the patients

People want the provider to fix them without their participation

High school application of Digital Health Skills

HEPs are the simplest way to meet them where they are…on their phones

Digital video to demo the exercises.

Coming soon is a digital self-motion analysis that helps you know when to correct the exercise

The AI helps us understand the acceptable level of adaptation

The digital tool also gives us the opportunity for outcome measure data collection 

With some AI models, the exercises can automatically adjust to tailor to the needs of the patient based on the motion capture

The Non-Clinical PT

What do you bring to the table?

Do you understand what it takes to build? Can you make an app invisible?

You have to address the fundamental problem the person presented you with.

1. It is a tool
2. Break your habits
3. Stop printing papers
   1. Digital prescriptions meet them where they are.
4. Data is far greater than an individual can

These people LOVE Athletic Trainers and help support the podcast:

Frio Hydration – Superior Hydration products.

Donate and get some swag (like Patreon but for the school)

HOIST – No matter your reason for dehydration DRINK HOIST

MedBridge Education – Use “TheSMB” to save some money, be entered in a drawing for a second year free, and support the podcast.

Marc Pro – Use “THESMB” to recover better.

Athletic Dry Needling – Save up to $100 when registering through our link.

Emerging Concussion tech can be big business. Casey and Kim join the podcast to discuss some of the new tools and trends for Sports Medicine professionals managing concussions.

What has gone away?

Clear edge test

New Concussion Tech:

What is new?

EyeBox – you put your chin on a chin rest and then track the marker in the EyeBox

Wavi – EEG

Mind Mirror – uses a front-facing camera and focuses on pupilometry 

Mouthguards – 

What is new with SWAY?

We stay up to date with the consensus statements.  We updated our documents from SCAT 5 to SCAT 6

Our tests mirror what is going on with the common research

We listen to our customers and now have it in English, Spanish and French.

We added the sleep survey

PHQ9

EMR integrations are a big thing for us.

Shortened the test if results were consistent

Helmets detect concussions real-time: 

What is your time-to-treatment?

How long does it take from injury to the time the injury is being treated by a specialized professional?

Contact Us:

Kim Wyand – [email protected]

Casey Paulk – [email protected]

Jeremy Jackson – Sports Medicine Broadcast on IG

These people LOVE Athletic Trainers and help support the podcast:

Frio Hydration – Superior Hydration products.

Donate and get some swag (like Patreon but for the school)

HOIST – No matter your reason for dehydration DRINK HOIST

MedBridge Education – Use “TheSMB” to save some money, be entered in a drawing for a second year free, and support the podcast.

Marc Pro – Use “THESMB” to recover better.

Athletic Dry Needling – Save up to $100 when registering through our link.

Casey and Kim share Emerging Technology in Sports Medicine

Emerging Tech in Sports Medicine

Rehab

Xothrm smart pad

Blazepods 

Firefly recovery

Healthy roster, RankOne and EMRs

GameReady

BFR Owens/Delfi, SujiBFR

Virtual Reality

Sidelines

Sway Medical App 

Avive

Perry weather

Emerging tech for At Home

Medbrige

Evaluation

InFlow Hydration monitor

Spark Motion

Dartfish

Sway Medical App

Force plates

Mind Mirror

Contact Us:

Casey Paulk

Kim Wyand

Jeremy Jackson

These people LOVE Athletic Trainers and help support the podcast:

Frio Hydration – Superior Hydration products.

Donate and get some swag (like Patreon but for the school)

HOIST – No matter your reason for dehydration DRINK HOIST

MedBridge Education – Use “TheSMB” to save some money, be entered in a drawing for a second year free, and support the podcast.

Marc Pro – Use “THESMB” to recover better.

Athletic Dry Needling – Save up to $100 when registering through our link.

Working definition: Athletic dry needling vs non-athletic dry needling.

There is not a difference between the wording.  We aim to take and make dry needling practical and easy to use.

We filmed professional-quality videos that are included in the course.

What got you started in Dry Needling?

I took 12 CEUs per year for 10 years

What is your favorite application?

The cervical seems to give the biggest outcomes

I love when people are stumped or out of options and willing to try anything

Weirdest needle

Needling has a systemic effect

Pelvic floor dry needling

There are a lot of barriers to entry for the secondary school AT.  

How do you walk through those?

Get the waiver specific to dry needling.

Use a lot less needles

Include stim and needles to reduce the number of needles needed.

Typically I use 16 -20 needles

Young kids, I use less than 10.

If someone is scared of needles, can they do this course?

We get this often.

I try to get them to try a few and see

We have only had one person no-show on the next day due to the fear of needles

When would you apply E-stim to needling?

Allows you to dose needling – essentially make it more or less intense.

Best used for pain mitigation

If they are hesitant

Find out their objections

You can have anything in the world you want if you help enough people get what they want. – Zig Zigler

Call to action:

use SportsMedicineBroadcast.com/DryNeedling for your exclusive discount

Contact Us

Scott Dixon – [email protected]

Scott – 904-853-1921

Jeremy Jackson –

These people LOVE Athletic Trainers and help support the podcast:

Frio Hydration – Superior Hydration products.

Donate and get some swag (like Patreon but for the school)

HOIST – No matter your reason for dehydration DRINK HOIST

MedBridge Education – Use “TheSMB” to save some money, be entered in a drawing for a second year free, and support the podcast.

Marc Pro – Use “THESMB” to recover better.

Athletic Dry Needling – Save up to $100 when registering through our link.

Contact Us

Jeremy Jackson

These people LOVE Athletic Trainers and help support the podcast:

Frio Hydration – Superior Hydration products.

Donate and get some swag (like Patreon but for the school)

HOIST – No matter your reason for dehydration DRINK HOIST

MedBridge Education – Use “TheSMB” to save some money, be entered in a drawing for a second year free, and support the podcast.

Marc Pro – Use “THESMB” to recover better.

Athletic Dry Needling – Save up to $100 when registering through our link.

Mark, where are you from and how did you get into Athletic Training?

A family friend owned the Milwaukee Bucks

We used to landscape his yard.

I was a sophomore or junior in high school and got connected with the Bucks AT.

Went through the Internship route

Worked Minor league baseball with the Brewers

Started working with Bellin Health after my internship

Passed on a low A ball job and stayed with Bellin

Tell some of your family origin story…did you have kids, tried but couldn’t, chose to not do natural childbirth…

Been married since 2010

One month before our wedding my wife-to-be ran a marathon and collapsed most of the way through.

2 months into our marriage she did a tilt table test and learned she had low blood pressure.

2011 convention in New Orleans and she was still running

She had a cardiac incident while in the pool…as in she actually died.

She ended up needing an internal defibrillator.

Talk about your adoption journey.

We were trying to have kids, but the heart meds were possibly affecting her.

We started using IVF and failed once, tried again and then my dad fell and broke his femur.  Then we learned that it failed again.

It was heart breaking.

Then my dad passed away the next week.

Most of the football season was a blur due to all of the family trauma.

My wife took the lead in looking into adoption.

We did not know if we wanted local, foreign, foster care, straight adopt.

We connected with adopt help out of California and a social work back here.

Once people know, the stories started coming out of the woodworks.  Lots of people I knew were affected by adoption in one way or another.

April 1st, 2014 we went live with our adoption.  Which was coincidentally our birth mom’s birthday.

What conversations have you had with other ATs about the choice to adopt?

Our adoption is open.

We get lots of friends asking us to speak to friends in family in similar situations.

Our son knows he has a birth mother and a mom and dad here.

Contact

Mark: IG, Twitter

Jeremy – SportsMedicineBroadcast on IG

These people LOVE Athletic Trainers and help support the podcast:

Frio Hydration – Superior Hydration products.

Donate and get some swag (like Patreon but for the school)

HOIST – No matter your reason for dehydration DRINK HOIST

MedBridge Education – Use “TheSMB” to save some money, be entered in a drawing for a second year free, and support the podcast.

Marc Pro – Use “THESMB” to recover better.

Athletic Dry Needling – Save up to $100 when registering through our link.

Mitigating Secondary Loss is something that hits home for me. Bubba Wilson has taken his role with ATsCare to another level. We recap the summer and one of the best CEU talks I have ever heard.

Where has AT taken you?

JJ: 

Thibodeaux, LA

Dallas, Texas

Arlington

Fort Davis

South Padre

Lansing Michigan

Hot Springs

Las Vegas

New Orleans

San Antonio

JJ Road trip

5 weeks

One van

7 people

Chad from Candid AT

Michigan AT Society Meeting

Meeting Cookie Tuesday in Detroit

Megan Smith at the University of Delaware.

Favorite tourist thing: 

Niagara Falls

Least favorite tourist thing

Statue of Liberty

Bubba

All this travel means you need to have your stuff in order…

I teach and followed the DaveRamsey plan to get out of debt, budget, and have my financial house in order

Talk about secondary loss

Nok box

I Am Dead, Now What

Bubba’s Quick Start Guide

Video from Trinity Sports Medicine Update

Call to action:

Contact:

Bubba Wilson –@ATCLATBubba – on X

Jeremy – @MrJeremyJackson on socials

These people LOVE Athletic Trainers and help support the podcast:

Frio Hydration – Superior Hydration products.

Donate and get some swag (like Patreon but for the school)

HOIST – No matter your reason for dehydration DRINK HOIST

MedBridge Education – Use “TheSMB” to save some money, be entered in a drawing for a second year free, and support the podcast.

Marc Pro – Use “THESMB” to recover better.

Athletic Dry Needling – Save up to $100 when registering through our link.

LEADS Academy was created to build foundational leadership and empower the next generation of leaders in the Michigan Athletic Trainers Society. Jacob Ortega-Schultz and Courtney Lewis join me live at MATS 2024.

LEADS

Leadership Excellence and Development Series

Contact Us

Jeremy Jackson

MATS Leadership

These people LOVE Athletic Trainers and help support the podcast:

Frio Hydration – Superior Hydration products.

Donate and get some swag (like Patreon but for the school)

HOIST – No matter your reason for dehydration DRINK HOIST

MedBridge Education – Use “TheSMB” to save some money, be entered in a drawing for a second year free, and support the podcast.

Marc Pro – Use “THESMB” to recover better.

Athletic Dry Needling – Save up to $100 when registering through our link.

Brian Parker spoke for an hour at the Michigan Athletic Trainers Society annual meeting. Energy drinks, stimulants, drugs and the need to educate athletes.

Taylor took anabolic steroids to get bigger faster stronger. 

He quit cold turkey and that lead him to depression and he chose to take his life.

Brian speaks at a lot of regional meetings and would love to come share Taylor story with your group.

3 questions to ask:

1. Contains banned substances?

2. Am I using it properly? 

3. Is it necessary? 

Just one energy drink can hurt your blood vessel function. 

ALL ME podcast

Contact Us

Jeremy Jackson – MrJeremyJackson on Twitter, SportsMedicineBroadcast on IG, FB

ATCorner Podcast

Ryan Collins

Joseph Eberhardt

Christina Fry

Bob Marley

These people LOVE Athletic Trainers and help support the podcast:

Frio Hydration – Superior Hydration products.

Donate and get some swag (like Patreon but for the school)

HOIST – No matter your reason for dehydration DRINK HOIST

MedBridge Education – Use “TheSMB” to save some money, be entered in a drawing for a second year free, and support the podcast.

Marc Pro – Use “THESMB” to recover better.

Athletic Dry Needling – Save up to $100 when registering through our link.