5 Questions with Suzanne Hecht, MD: Her Career and the UMN Sports Medicine Fellowship

Suzanne Hecht, MD, is faculty in the University of Minnesota Program in Sports Medicine and directs the University of Minnesota Sports Medicine Fellowship. She sees patients at University of Minnesota Physicians Sports Medicine Clinic and has a Certificate of Added Qualification in sports medicine and certification in clinical densitometry. Dr. Hecht also teaches residents in sports medicine workshops and provides training room and sideline care to University of Minnesota athletes as well as USA Gymnastics and US Figure Skating teams.

What initially drew you to sports medicine and primary care?

When I was a medical student, I thought I was going to be a neurologist as I loved my neuroanatomy and neurophysiology classes and had done neurology-based research. I had also considered pursuing a PhD in either neuroscience or neuropsychology prior to ultimately deciding to pursue a medical degree. Near the end of my third year of medical school, I finally rotated on neurology and quickly realized that clinical neurology wasn't for me. After reflecting back on what clinical rotations had inspired me, it turned out that family medicine was my favorite by far. I loved the idea of treating the whole person and their family over the entire lifespan. I also had a strong interest in sports medicine and orthopedic injuries as I coached gymnastics and was often faced with triaging injured athletes.

While on my medical school pediatric rotation, I learned that you could do a sports medicine fellowship through primary care residency training instead of going through an orthopedic surgery residency. I wasn't particularly interested in surgery, nor were female medical students encouraged to go into the surgical fields at the time. Family medicine residency followed by a sports medicine fellowship seemed to be the perfect combination for me. Luckily I matched at a strong academic family medicine program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and then I did my sports medicine fellowship training at UCLA.

What do you love about working, practicing, and living in Minnesota?

I'm originally from Wisconsin and when I moved to Minnesota after living in Los Angeles for 10 years, I felt like there were so many similarities to Wisconsin. I felt “at home” here. Minnesota is such a great state. There's just so many wonderful things about it. There are big urban areas, an amazing airport, lots of great places to get out and hike and explore nature. The weather can be variable, but when it's beautiful here, there's no place like it.

Working at the University of Minnesota affords me the opportunity to be a team physician for the Gopher athletes, teach fellows, residents and medical students about taking care of athletes and patients with sports medicine and orthopedic conditions while pursuing research and other scholarly activities.

What kind of learning experiences and curriculum highlights does the Sports Medicine Fellowship offer trainees?

The University of Minnesota Sports Medicine Fellowship offers a vast and comprehensive curriculum for fellows in training. We are particularly proud of our team coverage and event coverage, and we have coverage at many levels, ranging from high school athletes and even younger athletes up through the professional athletes and national governing body experiences.

We take care of two Division 1 schools, one of them being University of Minnesota, which is part of the B1G Conference, and then our other Division I school is the University of St. Thomas and they compete in the Summit League. The sports medicine fellows also provide medical care and event coverage for Bethel University, which is a Division 3 college. Each of the fellows has their own high school, and then there are numerous events throughout the year, such as the Twin Cities Marathon and Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota. Minnesota is known as “The State of Hockey,” and our fellows do a lot of hockey coverage along with skiing coverage. Other coverage opportunities include the NLB Minnesota Twins and their minor league team, the St. Paul Saints and the Minnesota Vikings, along with various USA Teams.

Another highlight of our fellowship program is training in academic pursuits such as research and teaching, which help further develop our field by training future leaders in sports medicine.  We also have a leadership curriculum and a sports medicine specific justice, equality, diversity and inclusion curriculum.

Musculoskeletal ultrasound training is integrated into our clinical care in the training room and sports medicine clinics and is coupled with weekly hands-on ultrasound didactic sessions.

What are the highlights of the clinical training sites?

The fellows’ clinical experiences, outside of the high school and college training room clinics, are predominantly at the University of Minnesota and the Clinic and Surgery Center in Sports Medicine and Orthopedics, Twin City Orthopedics and also at TRIA Orthopedic Center.

Our faculty includes primary care sports medicine physicians and a variety of sub-specialized orthopedic surgeons. The fellows perform ultrasound-guided injections along with learning diagnostic ultrasound. Not only do the fellows care for high-level athletes and recreational athletes, but they also treat patients who would benefit from exercise as well.

What makes the University of Minnesota Sports Medicine Fellowship program a strong choice?

The University of Minnesota Sports Medicine Fellowship program has many aspects that set it apart from other programs, including the team coverage. We also have special training for those who are interested in pursuing a career in academic medicine.

Our fellows take a course called Teaching, Evaluation, and Curriculum for Healthcare Professionals (TEACH), where they learn how to be better teachers. They also take a research course where they learn research methodology and can apply that to their fellowship research projects.

Another strength of the University of Minnesota Sports Medicine Fellowship program is our faculty. We have national leaders in many arenas, and for fellows that come to our program, we can help them develop special interest areas, whatever those may be. If we don't have it at the University of Minnesota, our faculty have numerous connections across the country to pair fellows with experts that can help them develop those interests.