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LifeBridge Health Named Official Healthcare Provider of Loyola Athletics

September 18, 2020


LifeBridge Health Named Official Healthcare Provider of Loyola Athletics featured image

BALTIMORE – Loyola University Maryland announced a long-term partnership with LifeBridge Health, where the health system will serve as the Official Healthcare Provider of the Greyhounds.

 

“We are extremely excited to enter into this long-term partnership with LifeBridge Health allowing for expert medical services to be provided to all of our student-athletes at Loyola,” said Donna M. Woodruff, Loyola’s assistant vice president and director of athletics. “LifeBridge Health’s locale, availability of important services, expert physicians and willingness to grow within the constantly changing landscape of college athletics makes it a perfect fit for what Loyola is and where we want to go as a department.”

Under the partnership, which was secured by Van Wagner, the multimedia rights (MMR) holder for the Greyhounds, LifeBridge Health will oversee care for Loyola’s 18 NCAA Division I sports teams.

“LifeBridge Health is proud to partner with Loyola University Maryland to bring the best healthcare to the student-athletes of such a prestigious university, where excellence in athletics and academics is held in such high esteem,” said Dr. Matthew Poffenrothsenior vice president and chief physician executive at LifeBridge Health. “Those of us privileged enough to be in the medical field see on a daily basis how critical the right healthcare services are to keep individuals in peak physical and emotional condition.”

LifeBridge Health and Loyola are working together to address the changing needs of student-athletes during the COVID-19 pandemic, including supporting the Greyhounds as Loyola student-athletes return to workouts and competition.

Through the partnership, LifeBridge Health will provide preseason physicals, onsite sports medicine clinics, access to orthopedic surgeons with sports medicine expertise, and the services of leading experts in concussion management. LifeBridge Health’s network will be able to offer expanded comprehensive care and personalized services based entirely around the needs of Loyola’s 400-plus student-athletes. LifeBridge Health also offers comprehensive rehabilitation services, including a Gait Lab at Sinai Hospital that uses state-of-the-art technology to analyze skeletal alignment and muscle function allowing for customized rehabilitation and training plans.

“The Sports Medicine Institute at LifeBridge Health offers a holistic and comprehensive approach so we treat each student-athlete as an individual, addressing each person’s specific needs so we can get athletes back to competing as soon and as safely as possible. We combine the expertise of a highly trained, passionate group of experts with the latest techniques in orthopedics, neurology, cardiology, primary care, rehabilitation and wellness,” said Dr. Craig Bennett, medical director and co-founder of the LifeBridge Health Sports Medicine Institute.

He added, “Caring for student-athletes begins well before an injury and continues well after it has healed to allow student-athletes to live their best lives, both on and off the field. We look forward to working with the student-athletes and the entire team at Loyola.”

This partnership will advance the health of student-athletes through sports medicine, primary care and physical therapy while also enabling avenues to promote nutrition, mental health and the overall well-being of the Greyhounds.

“LifeBridge Health has demonstrated a great plan for its sports medicine care, and we look forward to integrating its staff with our teams and student-athletes,” said John Hoffman, Loyola’s assistant athletic director and director of sports performance. “We look forward to further evolving student-athlete healthcare at Loyola through this partnership.”

Additionally, the agreement includes marketing opportunities that allow for LifeBridge Health to be featured on signage at all Greyhounds athletics facilities, in extensive marketing opportunities and across Loyola Athletics’ many digital platforms.

“The core value of our campus-wide division is to build university-wide partnerships that further the growth and prosperity of a true partnership,” said Mark Devine, Van Wagner’s senior vice president of campus-wide partnerships. “We are delighted to align a great Baltimore icon, LifeBridge Health, with another, Loyola University Maryland. Each organization plays a critical role in the Baltimore community.”