The Atlanta Braves and Emory Healthcare (EHC) have teamed up in a new partnership that designates EHC as the official healthcare provider of Atlanta’s professional baseball team.
EHC will provide the Braves with sports medicine treatment, muscular and skeletal support and general health care, according to Scott D. Boden, director of the Emory Orthopaedics and Spine Center. Emory physicians will be on the Braves’ sidelines during games and training to treat players’ injuries and advise the team on player recruitment based on their health, Boden said.
With the new partnership, the Braves join an EHC patient list that already includes athletes from the Atlanta Falcons and the Atlanta Hawks.
Director of Emory Sports Medicine Center John Xerogeanes and Emory physicians Kyle Hammond, Spero Karas, Jonathan Kim, Lee Kneer, Scott Maughon, Ken Mautner and Jeff Webb will join the Braves’ medical staff, according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle. In the past, none of the team’s medical doctors were Emory affiliates, Boden said.
Boden said he hoped to see a partnership between EHC and the Braves since he became a Braves fan when he moved to Atlanta in 1992. Last year, he met with members of the Braves executive team following the end of the team’s season, initiating the communication between the two organizations.
President of Business for the Braves Derek Schiller said that the Braves will receive “the best care possible,” and that he hopes Braves fans will appreciate and recognize the work of EHC.
The Braves will gain access to support from six hospitals, more than 200 EHC provider locations and more than 70 medical specialities offered by EHC, according to Boden. Additionally, EHC will open a new outpatient orthopaedics clinic in Smyrna, Ga., May 2017 near the Braves’ training locations to provide them with a closer treatment facility.
The Braves will also use Emory’s Sports Medicine Complex, which provides preventative and rehabilitative treatment as well as sports performance training technology, such as nutritional analysis and recovery equipment. The complex, scheduled to open Fall 2017, resulted from the partnership between EHC and the Atlanta Hawks, as reported by an April 2016 Wheel article.
Jonathan Lewin, president and CEO of EHC, said that the Sports Medicine Complex will help EHC achieve its goal of keeping Braves players healthy and “playing to their full potential.”
Boden said that he hopes EHC and the Braves will eventually collaborate on sports medicine research.
Lauren is an Environmental Science and Media Studies double major from Braselton, Georgia. She is a staff writer for the Emory Wheel, a member of Pi Beta Phi, president of Emory Running Club and a member of the Emory Environment Senate Committee. In her free time, she likes to play with her four dogs, including one named Kat!
