Yesterday
Dr. Irvin works as a family physician at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill. In addition, he teaches as an assistant professor in the Family Medicine and Sports Medicine departments at UNC’s School of Medicine, where he completed his Sports Medicine fellowship immediately following residency.
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Dr. Irvin attended medical school at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA, where he first enrolled thinking that he wanted to become an orthopedic surgeon. “I’m very sports-oriented,” he says, “and when I would watch ESPN growing up, orthopedic surgeons were always the ones getting interviewed. But I realized in my third year of medical school that I didn’t like the operating room.” Dr. Irvin realized instead that he liked working directly with the athletes. “It wasn’t until I did a summer internship in Pittsburgh that I learned that I wanted to spend my time with the athletes themselves,” he says.
His colleague at Morehouse, Macy McNair, then told him that Family Medicine was a great way to do that. “She told me there were many avenues for getting into sports medicine,” Dr. Irvin says. “She also encouraged me to got to my first Family Medicine symposium in my third year, and I was able to soak in everything. Family Medicine matched with my personality.” When Dr. Irvin had a pivotal conversation with one of the Family Medicine residency directors at the symposium, he was convinced: “She told me that Family Medicine is basically like a blank canvas where you can create your own masterpiece.” He completed his Family Medicine residency at Morehouse before applying for sports medicine fellowships around the country.
His visit to the UNC fellowship program convinced him that he had to attend there. “I just knew that it was my program when I visited,” Dr. Irvin says. “Thankfully, UNC thought so, too.” He explains that UNC offered the right mix of diversity, autonomous medicine, and access to student athletes: “it was a match made in heaven,” Dr. Irvin says.
He sees his patients at UNC Health in Chapel Hill, where Dr. Irvin says he is working to perfect a “50-50 split between Family Medicine and sports medicine.” His patient panel is already pretty close to that balance. “The first part of my clinical week is primary care,” Dr. Irvin says, “and the second part is sports medicine. I really enjoy both.”
Practicing both kinds of medicine means that Dr. Irvin sees the common concerns in both: “I’m seeing the variety of things that fall under Family Medicine, but I’m also treating the general population for hip pain, knee pain, and muscular complaints,” Dr. Irvin says. He also has the flexibility to work as a team physician at nearby colleges and high schools. “I’ll be working with East Chapel Hill High School, North Carolina Central University, and Shaw University, which is work that I’m grateful to do,” he says.
“Family Medicine has been instrumental in getting me to work on my medical passions,” Dr. Irvin says. “Working with the UNC Family Medicine department has 1,000% helped me reach those goals.”
He will teach the “Beyond the Ache: Diagnosing and Managing Common Shoulder and Elbow Injuries” session on Saturday, June 7. The curriculum includes the insights that family physicians need to understand fine pathophysiology, rotator cuff muscle injuries, lateral epicondylitis, and other topics which Dr. Irvin treats just about every week. “I just want attendees to glean good knowledge and grow comfortable with these health concerns,” Dr. Irvin says, “whether they don’t know any sports medicine, have completed a sports medicine fellowship, or are just interested in learning more.”
(If you haven’t already register, you can still sign up to meet Dr. Irvin in Greensboro and learn from him directly!)