All sports medicine specialists have one main goal in mind, and that is preventing future injuries and to improve the function of that area to return to everyday life.

[3] Specializing in the treatment of athletes and other physically active individuals, SEM physicians have extensive education in musculoskeletal medicine.

[4] European templates for SEM specialization generally recommend four years of experience in:[5] Although sports medicine was only established formally as a specialty in the 20th Century, the history of doctors having involvement in treating athletes goes back to ancient times in Greek, Roman and Egyptian societies.

[6][7][8][9][10] Continental European countries were the first to establish medical groups with a focus on sport in the earliest part of the 20th Century.

In Germany in the 1920s, an attempt was made to upskill thousands of doctors and other health professionals in sport and exercise medicine, without establishing it as a distinct specialty at that stage, but it failed due to lack of funding in the Depression.

[16] The USA (and many other countries) follow the model of recognizing Sports Medicine as an official subspecialty of multiple other primary medical specialties.

The most common primary specialties prior to a sports medicine subspecialty in the USA are family practice, orthopedics and physiatry.

[17] SEM physicians are frequently involved in promoting the therapeutic benefits of physical activity, exercise and sport for the individuals and communities.

[49] A sports medicine specialist can also be seen for advice in other areas of health, like nutrition, exercise, supplements, and how to prevent injuries before they occur.

[51] The management of concussion in sport has been extremely controversial over the past 20 years due to the discovery and reporting of Chronic traumatic encephalopathy as a disease that is common in ex-athletes, particularly footballers.

[53][54][55] These consensus statements have been seen on the positive side as being sports medicine leaders moving the management of concussion in a more conservative direction over time and encouraging a standard set of tests and assessments.

[citation needed] Whether male-to-female transgender athletes can safely and fairly participate in women's sport at the elite and community levels is a highly charged and controversial topic.

The main two allied health professions for sports injuries are athletic trainers (in the USA) and physical therapists (physiotherapists) in most other countries.