USU’s Dr. Francis O’Connor Connects Military and Professional Sports Medicine at MLB Winter Meetings

Uniformed Services University professor attends the 2025 MLB Winter Meetings to exchange insights on high-performance injury prevention, rehabilitation, and force readiness.

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U.S. Navy Capt. Justin Issler, commanding officer, USS New York ((LPD 21) walks towards the pitching mound to deliver the ceremonial first pitch at the Miami Marlins MLB baseball game during Fleet Week Fort Lauderdale. (U.S. Navy photo by Jacob Sippel/released)

December 30, 2025 by Sharon Holland

Dr. Francis O'Connor, professor at the Uniformed Services University (USU) and a nationally recognized leader in sports and military medicine, attended the Major League Baseball (MLB) Athletic Trainers and Team Physicians Meeting, held in conjunction with the 2025 MLB Winter Meetings in Orlando, Florida, recently.

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Dr. Francis O'Connor (Photo credit: Tom Balfour, USU)

The MLB Winter Meetings are among the most significant annual gatherings in professional baseball, bringing together a wide cross-section of professional baseball leadership and stakeholders. Attendees typically include Major League Baseball team owners, presidents, general managers, field managers, and other front-office executives, along with player agents representing free agents and contract negotiations. League officials from the Commissioner's Office are also present, as are representatives from Minor League Baseball, international baseball organizations, and baseball operations departments. Team physicians and athletic trainers participate in the meetings as well, as do media members covering transactions and policy discussions,vendors and business partners involved in analytics, technology, and player services, making the event a central annual gathering for decision-makers shaping the sport.

For O'Connor, the meeting offered a valuable opportunity to exchange insights between professional sports medicine and military health, including advances in injury prevention, rehabilitation, performance optimization, and return-to-play decision-making.

"There is a tremendous amount of overlap between caring for elite athletes and caring for Warfighters," said O'Connor. "Both populations operate at the limits of human performance, and both require evidence-based approaches to prevent injury, optimize performance, and ensure a safe return to full duty."

O'Connor's participation reflects USU's ongoing commitment to advancing Warfighter health, readiness, and performance through collaboration beyond the military health system. A past president of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, medical director of USU's Consortium for Health and Military Performance (CHAMP), and former director of the National Capital Consortium Sports Medicine Fellowship Program at USU and Fort Belvoir, O'Connor has long been at the forefront of shaping national clinical standards for sports and exercise medicine, with expertise that spans musculoskeletal injury, overuse conditions, and return-to-activity decision-making.

"Professional sports medicine often serves as an innovation lab for managing high physical demands across long seasons," O'Connor said. "Those lessons translate directly to the military, where service members must remain resilient and mission-ready over the course of a career."

Discussions at the Athletic Trainers and Team Physicians Meeting included emerging research, evolving clinical guidelines, and new strategies for protecting athlete health-topics that closely mirror challenges faced by military medicine in training and operational environments. O'Connor's engagement highlights how best practices developed in professional athletics can inform military medical education, policy, and clinical care.

"Collaboration across disciplines strengthens all of us," O'Connor added. "When military and civilian experts share data, experience, and perspective, we accelerate progress in keeping people healthy, strong, and ready to perform."