Military Sports Medicine Fellow takes top research honors at national meeting Published April 23, 2014 By Sharon Holland Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences BETHESDA, Md. -- Air Force Capt. (Dr.) Nathaniel Nye, a fellow in the National Capital Consortium Sports Medicine Fellowship at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Md., and Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, Va., won first place in the research competition at the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine annual meeting this month, earning the "Best Overall Research Award." The AMSSM is the national society for primary care sports medicine physicians in Family Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Pediatrics, Internal Medicine and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and is comprised of more than 15,000 national and international sports physicians. Dr. Nye's project, "Does Abdominal Circumference of Body Mass Index Better Predict Lower Extremity Injury Risk?" was one of 32 semi-finalists selected for presentation at AMSSM's annual meeting from more than 150 overall submissions. As the AMSSM winner, Dr. Nye has been invited to give AMSSM's Distinguished Scholar Lecture, an invited presentation at the June 2014 National Athletic Trainers Association meeting. "The Best Overall Research designation is awarded to one project each year from a combined 'Attending and Fellow' category. It is rare for a fellow's research project to win this award, and it is exceptionally rare - I don't remember it ever happening before -- for a current fellow to win the award," said Lt. Col. (Dr.) Anthony Beutler, director of the NCC Sports Medicine fellowship program and associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine at USU's F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine. This marks the second consecutive year that the AMSSM's Best Overall Research Award has been won by a USU Air Force physician. Beutler and his study team received the award last year for their work on injury prevention in military trainees --"Can a 10-minute Warm-up Prevent Injury in US Military Academy Cadets? A JUMP-ACL Study."