Demographic and training descriptive analysis of National and American Hockey League team physicians

Assess the demographic/education backgrounds of team physicians (TPs) in the National Hockey League (NHL) and American Hockey League (AHL).

Orthopedic Surgeon (O) and Primary Care (PC) TPs for each NHL and AHL team were recorded based on an internet search. Age, sex, and race were collected. Education and practice information were collected and included programs attended, program region, degree, fellowship completion, fellowship subspeciality, practice setting, and H-indices.

Thirty-nine NHL O, 38 NHL PC, 39 AHL O, and 33 AHL PC TPs were identified. 100 % of O-NHL and -AHL TPs were male while 94.7 % and 87.9 % of NHL and AHL PC TPs were male, respectively. NHL TPs were 53.2 years old on average while AHL TPs were 50.8 years old (p = 0.11). Most TPs were Caucasian. More NHL O TPs were MDs (100 %) compared to NHL PC TPs (84.2 %; p = 0.011); similar trends were seen in the AHL. 66.7 % of NHL O TPs practice in academic settings, compared to 33.3 % of AHL O TPs (p = 0.030). NHL O TPs had the highest H-indices. The most represented residency/fellowship programs were Hospital for Special Surgery and Kerlan-Jobe.

NHL O TPs were more likely to have an MD, be fellowship trained, practice in an academic setting, and had higher H-indices compared to their NHL PC counterparts; similar trends were observed in the AHL. There was an overall lack of diversity amongst TPs in both leagues.