Stephanie Schmidt, MD, is a primary care sports medicine physician who focuses on preventing, diagnosing, and treating a wide range of common problems and injuries, including muscle strains, sprains, joint pain, arthritis, and tendinitis.
“I practice nonoperative orthopaedics and offer comprehensive musculoskeletal care,” Dr. Schmidt explains. “I also perform ultrasound-guided joint and tendon injections.”
Dr. Schmidt says she was drawn to a career in medicine at a young age. “My brother was born with a heart condition, and we spent a lot of time with him in the hospital. He had multiple surgeries and that sparked my curiosity in and respect for medicine because I knew it was saving his life,” she says.
As an undergraduate, a course in musculoskeletal anatomy fascinated Dr. Schmidt, and she found her love of sports medicine during medical school. “Prior to pursuing a sports medicine fellowship, I chose family medicine for residency because you can treat different ages and you treat the whole patient,” she says. “Primary care sports medicine is a great match of preventive care and taking care of people who are trying to stay active.”
The best part of her job, Dr. Schmidt says, is making a difference in a patient’s life. “I enjoy getting people back to what they want to be doing in life, whether it’s an older patient who just wants to go on a walk once a day or a high school athlete trying to get back to their sport,” she says. “In community sports medicine, we treat everyone as an athlete because even if you aren’t playing an organized sport, everyone uses their body in a mechanical way every day.”
When she meets a patient, Dr. Schmidt says she focuses on letting them tell their story and making clear she is there to partner with them in their health care. “I also try to give them realistic expectations. If something has been going on for six months, it’s not going to feel better in one day. But I can give them a timeline and options for treatment so that they are an active participant in their care,” she says.
Dr. Schmidt is also the head primary care physician for Yale University Athletics and is a member of the Connecticut State Medical Society’s Committee on the Medical Aspects of Sports .
