Founded in 2002, the San Diego Sports Medicine Foundation was established to fill an existing health care gap for the youth of San Diego. We believe all kids deserve the opportunity to participate in life and we are dedicated to providing a medical safety net to injured youth who have no access to care. The founders represent a strong partnership between local physicians and community leaders. Dr. David Chao is the founder and current president of the SDSMF.

With the combination of sports and the active San Diego lifestyle, unavoidable injuries sometime occur and sadly, many of these injured kids do not have health insurance. Most of these families do not qualify for government assistance because the parents are employed in low-wage jobs and have no means for these kids to receive appropriate medical care. It is unacceptable to penalize the kids and ask them to wait until they have saved the money up to have the necessary medical or surgical care.

Our physicians are of the highest caliber and serve as team physicians for the San Diego Chargers, ESPN X-Games and USA National Rugby Team. It is the goal of the SDSMF to bring this top-quality care to the injured youth of San Diego who are in need. Thousands of San Diego’s young athletes have already benefited from non-reimbursed medical care, with a hundred of them receiving free MRIs, surgery, postoperative care, and bracing.

The hallmark of the Foundation is that no professional fees are paid to participating physicians, surgeons, anesthesiologists and therapists. Funds raised by the Foundation are used to help defray the hard costs related to surgery, such as medication, gloves, drapes, and non-reusable equipment. In addition, the SDSMF operates free Saturday morning injury clinics for high school athletes, provides pre-participation sports screening examinations, Sports Medicine/Athletic Trainer year-around support, educational conferences, research, preventative medicine and fellowship opportunities. For the third straight school year, the SDSMF will subsidize the salaries of full time certified Athletic Trainers in local San Diego high schools and has plans to expand the student athletic training program throughout San Diego County. Through these valuable programs, the SDSMF is able to offer a medical safety net to the youth of San Diego.