The Focus on Public Health and Health Disparities Highlights Opportunities for Athletic Trainers to Demonstrate Value

Unfortunately, few studies describe the role of the athletic trainer as a care coordinator in our traditional settings and as population health specialists and drivers of cost containment 7 Health care systems are looking for evidence that demonstrates how care coordination nearest to where the patient lives, learns, works, and plays can impact the Triple Aim [ ]athletic trainers should provide support services for complex conditions in living environments to mitigate the likelihood and impacts of trauma Translating and promoting the publications from the National Academies, the National Institute for Minority Health and Health Disparities, and other federal, state, and local agencies to our work in sports medicine and athletic training is crucial to making the case for athletic trainers to work collaboratively with other health care professionals within this new and challenging climate Presenting athletic trainers as primary care providers empowers us to consider new ways of thinking about ACEs and health disparities, the potential impact on long term health, the physical consequences of toxic stress on brain development, behavioral medicine and risk taking, the role of inflammation on immunity, cardiovascular diseases and endocrine disorders, and the benefits of physical activity on