Uniformed Services University professor attends the 2025 MLB Winter Meetings to trade insights on high-performance damage prevention, rehabilitation, and drive readiness.
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U.S. Navy Capt. Justin Issler, commanding officer, USS New York ((LPD 21) walks in the direction of the pitching mound to ship the ceremonial first pitch at the Miami Marlins MLB baseball sport throughout Fleet Week Fort Lauderdale. (U.S. Navy photograph by Jacob Sippel/launched) |
December 30, 2025 by Sharon Holland
Dr. Francis O’Connor, professor at the Uniformed Services University (USU) and a nationally acknowledged chief in sports activities and navy medication, attended the Major League Baseball (MLB) Athletic Trainers and Team Physicians Meeting, held together with the 2025 MLB Winter Meetings in Orlando, Florida, lately.
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Dr. Francis O’Connor (Photo credit score: Tom Balfour, USU) |
The MLB Winter Meetings are among the many most important annual gatherings in skilled baseball, bringing collectively a large cross-section {of professional} baseball management and stakeholders. Attendees usually embody Major League Baseball group house owners, presidents, normal managers, discipline managers, and different front-office executives, together with participant brokers representing free brokers and contract negotiations. League officers from the Commissioner’s Office are additionally current, as are representatives from Minor League Baseball, worldwide baseball organizations, and baseball operations departments. Team physicians and athletic trainers take part within the conferences as properly, as do media members masking transactions and coverage discussions,distributors and enterprise companions concerned in analytics, know-how, and participant providers, making the occasion a central annual gathering for decision-makers shaping the game.
For O’Connor, the assembly provided a worthwhile alternative to trade insights between skilled sports activities medication and navy well being, together with advances in damage prevention, rehabilitation, efficiency optimization, and return-to-play decision-making.
“There is a tremendous amount of overlap between caring for elite athletes and caring for Warfighters,” mentioned O’Connor. “Both populations operate at the limits of human performance, and both require evidence-based approaches to prevent injury, optimize performance, and ensure a safe return to full duty.”
O’Connor’s participation displays USU’s ongoing dedication to advancing Warfighter well being, readiness, and efficiency by way of collaboration past the navy well being system. A previous president of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, medical director of USU’s Consortium for Health and Military Performance (CHAMP), and former director of the National Capital Consortium Sports Medicine Fellowship Program at USU and Fort Belvoir, O’Connor has lengthy been at the forefront of shaping nationwide medical requirements for sports activities and train medication, with experience that spans musculoskeletal damage, overuse situations, and return-to-activity decision-making.
“Professional sports medicine often serves as an innovation lab for managing high physical demands across long seasons,” O’Connor mentioned. “Those lessons translate directly to the military, where service members must remain resilient and mission-ready over the course of a career.”
Discussions at the Athletic Trainers and Team Physicians Meeting included rising analysis, evolving medical tips, and new methods for safeguarding athlete well being—subjects that intently mirror challenges confronted by navy medication in coaching and operational environments. O’Connor’s engagement highlights how greatest practices developed in skilled athletics can inform navy medical schooling, coverage, and medical care.
“Collaboration across disciplines strengthens all of us,” O’Connor added. “When military and civilian experts share data, experience, and perspective, we accelerate progress in keeping people healthy, strong, and ready to perform.”