May 27, 2010

The new medical director of Major League Baseball (MLB) is Gary Green, MD, an alumnus (’83) of Hahnemann University and former resident of Drexel University College of Medicine, then known as the Medical College of Pennsylvania.

As medical director, Green will evaluate and update baseball’s Drug Prevention and Treatment Programs at the Major and Minor League levels. He is also now responsible for all aspects of the health and safety of the players and umpires, as well as interacting with the medical staffs of all of the individual clubs. These duties include addressing bacterial skin infections, like MRSA, in the training rooms; outbreaks of H1N1 in teams; splintered bats and equipment safety; and emergency preparation for game coverage.

Green has been involved with MLB since 2003. He helped implement a rigorous testing and education program to address the problem of anabolic steroid use and performance-enhancing drugs.

“Performance-enhancing drugs can drastically alter a sport so that it is no longer about the perfection of natural abilities, but about who can take the best drugs,” said Green. “Over the past seven years, MLB has made great progress in reducing the use of these drugs and restoring the integrity of the game. One of the things we admire about sports is that they are played by a common set of agreed-upon rules so that competition can be measured equally,” Green added.

In his new role, Green will also serve as the Office of the Commissioner’s primary liaison to club physicians and certified athletic trainers. “Dr. Green has been an outstanding asset to Major League Baseball as a consultant, and we are pleased that this expanded role will provide him an opportunity to make significant contributions to our game,” said Baseball Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig.

Currently, Green serves as a clinical professor in the Division of Sports Medicine at The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He has researched performance-enhancing drug use in athletics through the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory. For five years, he chaired the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Committee on drug testing and drug education. Green, who is board-certified in both internal medicine and sports medicine, is a fellow in the American College of Physicians and the American College of Sports Medicine. He also has a private medical practice, the Pacific Palisades Medical Group, in California.