Sport and exercise medicine is a specialty area of medicine, although the structure of SEM training varies substantially from country to country.
In Australia and New Zealand the status of SEM is of a stand-alone specialty with ACSEP being the specialist College administering training and education. In Australia and New Zealand, patients are encouraged or required to visit a General Practitioner before being referred to a specialist. Doctors wishing to specialize in sport and exercise medicine must complete a medical degree, a minimum of three years of pre-specialty general medical training, a minimum of 4 years of specialty (advanced) training with the ACSEP, pass examinations, publish a research paper in the field of SEM and undertake annual continuous medical education to stay active. The ACSEP is one of the few specialist medical colleges in Australia and NZ that conducts training primarily in private practice, others being the
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and
Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine. Although sports physicians can prescribe
drugs, perform minor
surgical procedures, use
Diagnostic ultrasound and order other
radiological imaging and
blood tests, the signature treatment of SEM practice is
exercise prescription. Careers within SEM in Australia and NZ include: • Clinical sports medicine practice, treating musculoskeletal injuries in athletes, but also treating illness and working in areas such as
sports cardiology, managing
concussion and
exercise-induced asthma • Clinical exercise medicine practice assisting with non-athletic patients who are trying to exercise move for general health. Exercise is known to treat and/or prevent cancer, cardiovascular disease, mental health disorders, arthritis and back pain, diabetes and osteoporosis, which are many of Australia's health priorities. • Working in professional and elite sport as a team doctor • Working in professional and elite sport as an administrator. The majority of major sports in Australia have Chief Medical Officers who oversee medical and health policy within the sport • Working in research/academic publication Some of the major conditions typically treated by SEM include
Osteoarthritis,
Tendinopathy,
Back pain,
Muscle strain,
Concussions in sport,
Sprained ankle,
Anterior cruciate ligament injury,
Dislocated shoulder. Sports and exercise medicine physicians working in specialist SEM practice and the ACSEP are differentiated from the more broad bodies
Sports Medicine Australia and Sports Medicine New Zealand which represents not only doctors but also Allied Health practitioners working in the
Sports medicine field, including occupations such as
Physiotherapist,
Exercise Physiologist,
Podiatrist and other branches of
Sports science. The worldwide parent body for these more broad sports medicine associations is
FIMS.
Funding Sport and exercise medicine in New Zealand is essentially funded by the
Accident Compensation Corporation, which is a no-fault government insurer covering all injuries which occur in NZ, including sports injuries. Professional sports also directly employ some SEM physicians. In Australia, Medicare has traditionally provided very limited funding for patients of SEM physicians. Medicare rebates for SEM physicians were lowered in 2010, and were not increased until 2025, so that much of the expense in consulting a SEM physician was borne by the patient. Initial referred consultations with a SEM specialist under Medicare in Australia had a bulk-billing rate of only 9% in 2018–19, which is the lowest for any type of specialist under Medicare in Australia. A typical cost for consultation was A$225 in 2018–19, of which only $73.85 was refunded by Medicare, leaving patients $151 out of pocket. A 2016-2018 review of Medicare recommended that SEM consultation rebates for SEM physicians increase to achieve parity with other specialist physicians (p 29–37), although no formal response to this review was ever made by the Department of Health. Instead, the ACSEP was referred to multiple other committees for further consideration. In 2024, the Medicare Benefits Schedule Review Advisory Committee (MRAC) also recommended that ACSEP Fellows practised as non-procedural physicians using referral-based long consultations and therefore should be made eligible for Consultant Physician rebates under Medicare. The other traditional specialties of medicine in Australia were accused of creating a "hostile environment" stopping sports medicine from being recognized adequately under Medicare over the first 25 years of the 21st Century. Finally, on July 1, 2025, SEM physicians in Australia were granted parity with other specialist physicians (consultant physicians) in Australia and their patients finally allowed to claim long consultation item numbers.
Annual conference Generally in spring of each year (October-November), the ACSEP holds an annual scientific conference. In some years this is in conjunction with the conferences of
Sports Medicine Australia or Sports Medicine New Zealand. The conference venue rotates with NZ hosting approximately every 4th year. The date is chosen partly due to the seasonal nature of the professional football codes in Australasia in autumn and winter, which would make a suitable date in these seasons problematic. A highlight is the annual dinner with awarding of Fellowships to newly graduated Fellows. The college is small enough that individual career-to-date citations for new Fellows can be made at the dinner. ==History==