The Evolution From Sports to Sports Medicine

Dr. Jaineet “Jai” Chhabra, MD – a resident in the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV Department of Family and Community Medicine – has long had an interest in sports, but his role has evolved from being an athlete to caring for athletes, as well as people who want to become more active.

Chhabra’s initial interest in athletics led him to eventually play for two top-ranked, high school basketball teams. During that time, he chose to attend a basketball-focused college preparatory school, but shortly before leaving home at age 15, he learned that his father Amarinder Chhabra, MD, was suffering from symptoms that would eventually be diagnosed as nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) – an atypical presentation of a disease that was causing his liver to deteriorate at a young age. Despite this diagnosis, his father encouraged his family to continue on and not use his condition “as an excuse to quit anything.”

With these words, the younger Chhabra continued pursuing a career in basketball, and he opted to play for a post-graduate institution that allowed him to “compete against some junior colleges before starting university.” After reaching a level that drew interest from more competitive schools, Chhabra endured several injuries – ultimately ending his career. Although this closed the door to his athletic career, he says that “it was in turn good fortune” as it led to him coaching basketball for local kids with physical and mental disabilities.

“Working with these children made me realize just providing basketball drills for them wasn’t necessarily enough. It was assuming a role that I could maybe help them with their conditions in a way that could not only assist them on the basketball court and feel happy, but actually enable them to succeed in life,” Chhabra says. “That’s something my father did for his patients.”

After this experience, Chhabra completed his physical therapy while attending the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he completed both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Shortly after college graduation, Chhabra’s father passed away from an acute infection – months away from a planned liver transplant.

Reflecting on how his father remained focused on his patients even when sick, Chhabra pushed through his grief and flew back to his teaching job the day after his father’s funeral. His main goal was quickly getting into medical school nearby his mother who still resided in West Virginia. He soon accomplished this with his acceptance into Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine.

During medical school, he decided he wanted to go into primary care sports medicine, realizing how personally gratifying it would be for him. After completing medical school, Chhabra wanted to go somewhere that would best prepare him for a “non-operative orthopaedics fellowship.”

He says, “ … it had to be an environment that would champion innovation, passion, and empathy for all while providing robust experience in caring for athletes competing at a variety of levels.”

This led him to the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine’s family medicine residency program, where he has thus far had the opportunity to work as an assistant team physician for the National Basketball Association (NBA) Summer League, the 2024 Mountain West Conference Basketball Championships, and multiple men’s and women’s UNLV sports teams under the guidance of Dr. Wade Gaal – an associate professor, the director of the sports medicine fellowship program, and the medical director and head team physician of UNLV Athletics – and Glenn Barnes, DO, an assistant professor and the associate director of the sports medicine fellowship.

“Drs. Gaal and Barnes are both wholeheartedly invested in my future. It is special when two giants in the field embrace what you are trying to do early in your career,” Dr. Chhabra says.

Chhabra has presented at multiple national sports medicine conferences in the last year and, during the 2024 American Medical Society of Sports Medicine Annual Meeting, won a $2,000 humanitarian grant to “help pay for medical supplies and tennis gear” for a school near his hometown in West Virginia.

“It is a wonderful feeling to gift something to a community I grew up with,” says Chhabra. Along with wanting to assist more people in various athletic disciplines, he plans on helping schools here in Las Vegas and working with at-risk youth. He recently started serving Ed W. Clark High School as a volunteer team physician to increase access to healthcare for underserved athletes.

In his current research efforts, Chhabra is looking to “locally expand the scope” of his biomechanics work and “further explore the role of blood flow optimization for muscle recovery” in hopes of one day being able to produce “sports wearables, novel therapeutics, and preventative techniques that range from providing world-class athletes new tools to helping sedentary people with their fitness journeys.”

“Though I aim to eventually patent and integrate some of my ideas to help revolutionize sports performance and innovation here in the entertainment capital, regardless of where my path takes me long term, the main goal is to see a light glimmer in the eyes of those I take care of … ” he says. “My father stood for the most vulnerable, inspiring people even in the final round of his life … Empowering them, as well as other populations, to stand alongside a person who aspires to simply go the distance would mean I did something worth living and dying for.”