For Dr. Jacqueline Brady, good sports medicine starts with listening, not just to the research or the data, but to the athlete sitting in front of you.
An orthopedic sports surgeon with Kaiser Permanente, Dr. Brady has worked with athletes at the collegiate, Olympic, and professional levels. Today, she serves as a team physician for the Portland Thorns and Portland Fire, caring for athletes both on and off the field and court.
Her approach is rooted in a simple idea: athletes should trust their bodies and have a voice in their own care. “I think my job is to preserve an athlete’s ability to trust their own body signals.”
Helping women athletes find their voice
For Dr. Brady, that philosophy is especially important when caring for women athletes. Sports medicine is learning more about the unique considerations women face, from ACL injuries and joint laxity to fueling, menstrual cycles, pregnancy and postpartum return to sport.
But she believes the conversation needs to go beyond physical health.
“I think sport gives women and girls a voice,” she says. “Sport gives girls an opportunity to develop a different kind of confidence: to trust themselves, speak up and persevere.”
That confidence can be just as important in the training room as it is on the field.
Dr. Brady remembers a teenage runner who continued to experience shin pain despite treatment for what appeared to be a stress reaction. Eventually, the athlete came back and said, “I really don’t think this is a stress reaction. Can we look again?”
She was right.
What stayed with Dr. Brady wasn’t simply finding the correct diagnosis. It was that the athlete trusted herself enough to question what wasn’t feeling right.
“That’s not being difficult. That’s advocating for yourself.”
It’s a lesson Dr. Brady hopes young athletes carry with them long after they leave the playing field.
A new standard for women’s sports
That same philosophy is reflected in the evolution of women’s professional sports in Portland. The new Kaiser Permanente Performance Center, home to the Portland Thorns and Portland Fire, was designed specifically with women athletes in mind, bringing training, sports medicine, recovery and wellness together in one place.
For Dr. Brady, the facility represents an important shift in how women athletes are supported.
“It feels pretty remarkable to see women’s sports reach this moment, even seeing facilities designed specifically with women athletes in mind,” she says. “From the lens of women’s sports, it feels earth-shattering that we’ve gotten to a moment where women athletes are being supported in this way.”
And the benefits extend beyond the professional athlete. Elite sport creates opportunities to study new approaches to injury prevention, rehabilitation and recovery; research that can ultimately improve care for athletes at every level.
From elite athletes to every athlete
Dr. Brady often says, “Everyone is an athlete in their own way.”
You don’t have to play professionally to benefit from what elite athletes can teach us: understand your body, recognize when something doesn’t feel right, ask questions, and work with the people around you.
“Everyone has a body they’re asking something of,” she says. “Everyone deserves to understand it and have a voice in their care.”
That belief is closely aligned with Sport Oregon Foundation’s She Flies initiative, which works to create more opportunities for girls and women to participate in sport. Giving girls access to sport is about more than participation; it’s about helping them develop confidence, resilience and the ability to trust their own voice.
And for Dr. Brady, the work remains exciting because there is still so much to learn.
“The combination of impact, people and curiosity,” she says.
And then there’s basketball.
Dr. Brady’s eight-year-old daughter is getting into the sport, and she’s been coaching her through CYO.
“It’s been really fun to have basketball back in my life in that way.”