By Kate Scriven
It’s the end of the school year, but Thurston County area student athletes are already preparing for fall sports.
While many families take students to their family physician for a sports physical during the summer months, there is another option for Olympia School District students. For the past seven years, area physicians, physical therapists, and sports medicine specialists have gathered together on a Saturday in June for the TOPS Physicals Event at Capital High School.
TOPS (Team Of Physicians for Students) was started in 1998 in the Phoenix, Arizona area by Dr. Paul Steingard. The program was designed to help ensure all students gain access to free, comprehensive health screenings. A major component of the original TOPS screenings was EKG screenings, identifying potential cardiac conditions that often go undetected in teens until it’s too late.
The model has been successfully adapted to school districts around the country, including here in Olympia. In its seventh year, the TOPS team expects to serve between 450 and 500 students on Saturday, June 7. Among the doctors serving each year are a wide variety of specialists from Olympia Orthopeadics Associates including neurologists, general orthopaedic surgeons, and sports focused physical therapists.
“Not only does the TOPS event provide a comprehensive exam for the kids, it brings together over 65 volunteers from the medical community who provide their specialty expertise to the event,” shares Olympia School District Health and Fitness Director, Jeff Carpenter. “The kids can ask questions during the assessment and the access to the orthopaedic physicians is particularly helpful.”
Students will rotate through each specialty station and complete comprehensive assessments through a battery of tests. While the EKG station has been eliminated from the screening, doctors still look for cardiac warning signs including murmurs and blood pressure anomalies. Assessments include:
- Height and weight check
- Ear, nose, throat examinations
- Heart and lung check
- Range of motion testing
- Flexibility testing
- Neurological testing
- Vision testing
- Hernia check
- Health Education discussion
- Oral Exam
Dr. Stephan Snow, a specialist at Olympia Orthopaedics, sees patients in the Westside Clinic, many with sports related injuries. He knows first hand the importance of clearing student athletes for play, helping them avoid injuries before they happen. He has been involved with TOPS for many years and will join the team again this year. “I have done sports physicals in some form for over 20 years. TOPS is the latest incarnation of this service with much thanks to Dr. Jon Peterson for starting the program,” notes Dr. Snow.
Dr. Peterson, a family practice physician at Capital Family & Sports Medicine spearheaded the Olympia TOPS program and remains the lead organizer today. Pulling volunteers from throughout the Thurston County medical community, the event has grown each year.
“I plan to participate for at least part of the day this year,” shares Dr. Snow who will do the musculo- skeletal portion of the exam. “I really enjoy being around the young people and getting a sense of what is going on in their world.”
Another OOA doctor and a TOPS regular is Dr. Andrew Manista, an orthopaedic spine surgeon at the group’s Westside Clinic. Dr. Manista has participated in the neurological portion of the TOPS screenings. “Athletics is a big part of high school and is important to the student athletes. It provides them the opportunity to gain skills to become a team leader and possibly earn a scholarship,” shared Dr. Manista when discussing why he has participated in TOPS. “We want to make sure we provide them interventions that allow them to play at their best level and get the most out of it.”
One area of particular concern to the Olympia School District, as well as to neurosurgeons and neurologists at OOA, is the increased instance of concussion in high school sports. With that in mind, the TOPS physicals include a comprehensive ImPACT study for each participant. The study takes about 20 minutes per student and utilizes a sophisticated computer system to establish a baseline of cognitive function allowing a comparison should an injury occur. The study measures things such as visual and verbal memory, reaction time to the 1/100 of a second, and attention span.
If the athlete sustains an injury during the course of athletic play, the baseline can be used as part of a comprehensive assessment by their health care team, to clear the student for return to play. Dr. Leyen Vu, Oly Ortho’s Sports Medicine physician in charge of the Westside walk-in clinic, shares, “We’re a lot more vigilant on how we’re treating concussions and being aggressive on prevention and treatment but being conservative on return to play,” explained Vu.
The ImPACT testing is another piece of the safety puzzle compiled by the TOPS screenings. The end goal is simply ensuring kids stay safe on the field, court, course, track, and pitch all year long.
TOPS Physical Event
June 7, 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Capital High School
2707 Conger Ave NW in Olympia
