Recently, our co-founder and president Dan Fronczak had the opportunity to talk with Laurence R. Gordon, DO, who specializes in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics with Aspirus and serves as Team Physician for DC Everest High School in Wisconsin. We were excited to hear about Dr. Gordon’s use of Healthy Roster and love seeing how our platform is fostering better communication between physicians, coaches, parents and athletic trainers.
Keep reading to learn more about how Dr. Gordon is serving his community, how and why he uses Healthy Roster and the value he sees in the platform:
Tell us a little bit about the work you do in your community:
I have been in the Wausau, Wisconsin area for about 14 years. I was at Wausau East High School for about 8 years, and then I moved over to DC Everest High School where I serve as their team physician. My time is all donated. I cover varsity football games home and away. I also cover both girls and boys basketball home games at both the varsity and JV levels. I spend about 200 hours a year at the school. I’ll cover other selected events as needed. The athletic trainer and I cover football together. I do it because I love it. In the beginning, it certainly helped me build my practice and got me some visibility, but I just like taking care of the kids.
How do you utilize Healthy Roster?
Healthy Roster is a great tool! I’m probably actively using the app about seven times a day. As a physician, there are a few features that really stand out. Number one, I can enter things in the system myself. You give a kid a note about “limited activity”, but there’s no way of knowing or seeing if they’re really bringing that note to the school. So I tell them I know you’re in the Healthy Roster system so I’m putting this info in. The kids are surprised, and I tell them the reason I do so is to make sure we’re all on the same page to get you the best care possible. This is not about limiting playing time, this is about getting them better faster, so they can play sooner and play more. Second, I think we’re finally at a day and age where coaches do not want to jeopardize the kid’s health. Coaches today understand that what the doctor and athletic trainer advise is the best option for their athlete, and Healthy Roster has certainly helped in this regard.
You use the app quite a bit. Why do you think a mobile EMR (Electronic Medical Record) is important?
Because I’m the overall physician, I get notifications for every athlete in Healthy Roster, so there are days where in the matter of a half an hour I may get 10 Healthy Roster alerts. If I feel it’s urgent, I’ll use Healthy Roster to send a message back about what is needed to get done for the athlete.
We’ve needed something like this for a long time because everyone is mobile now - parents, coaches, athletic trainers and doctors. We used to carry the forms on the sidelines, but you can now actually fill those forms out easier on your app, and they’re more secure.
Are there any other benefits of Healthy Roster that you think are important for providers to be aware of?
I think overall now, because of Healthy Roster, providers are doing a better job of documenting what’s going on and making people more aware. Healthy Roster also helps the providers receive the credit for the work they do. Everyone is different, but what I found valuable as a physician is I can choose whether to get all of the alerts or just have access to the information without receiving notifications. I prefer getting the alerts because I can manage it, but I can also see why some physicians would just want to be affiliated with the group for gathering information. As an example, in the winter I saw all these alerts that said ‘rash, rash, rash,’ and I was like is this the wrestling team? I asked myself, do we have a mat problem? So sometimes I can spot trends that others cannot and I credit that to the services Healthy Roster provides.
We want to thank Dr. Gordon for speaking with us and for all the work he does (for no cost!) for DC Everest High School.