Next Woman Up: Michelle Xiao, member of NFL Diversity in Sports Medicine Pipeline Initiative’s 2024 class

How did you become part of the NFL Diversity in Sports Medicine Pipeline Initiative?

I had heard about this program when it first started in 2022. I have been interested in sports medicine and orthopedic surgery as a future career, and I’m also a big NFL fan, so the two interests aligned perfectly with this opportunity. There was a Stanford medical student in the program last year, and I had heard great things about it. So I sent in an application, and luckily, I was given the opportunity to be part of it.

What does a typical day in this program look like for you?

The schedule is pretty variable, but I am primarily at the team facility almost every day the players have training. Before I go to the facility, I am in the operating room with Dr. Tim McAdams or Dr. Geoff Abrams at Stanford and help out with some surgeries in the morning. Then I’ll go to practice, which usually begins around 10:30 a.m. After practice, I see athletes who needed assessment of injuries or a follow-up in the training room with a team physician — Dr. McAdams, Dr. Abrams or Dr. Nino Saglimbeni, whoever was covering practice that day. I also interacted a lot with the rest of the sports medicine staff (especially Tomo Harada, Dustin Little, Manny Rivera, Jonathan Dickey, Mike Sola and Katie Carden) and learned so much from them, as well. Getting to see the full picture of the medical staff behind the team and how that group as a collective gets players back on the field as soon and safely as possible has been really interesting. Some days are also spent in clinic with the team physicians seeing their patients.

I am definitely getting a lot of experience, learning a lot you would never learn in a rotation in a hospital. I have been able to sit down with the team doctors and review MRIs and physical exam skills, so I am able to pick their brains and learn from their expertise.

It sounds like you kept pretty busy. What were some of your biggest takeaways?

I mentioned the team behind the team, and I’ve learned a lot about what it takes behind the scenes to take care of professional athletes. The sports medicine staff works tirelessly, seven days a week, to optimize player health and recovery from injuries. I saw how the athletic trainers, physical therapists, strength and conditioning coaches and team physicians are in constant communication with each other about injuries and rehab plans. Everyone is working their hardest to best support the team, and it’s a great environment to be surrounded in. I get to see players go from being assessed for injury to working through their rehab and making it back onto the field.