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TL;DR
Despite near-unanimous agreement that exercise is medicine, most doctors lacked familiarity with SEM referral pathways and viewed lack of awareness as a major barrier.
BMJ Open · 3 authors, 2 centres
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Despite near-unanimous agreement that exercise is medicine, most doctors lacked familiarity with SEM referral pathways and viewed lack of awareness as a major barrier.
This cross-sectional survey used a questionnaire developed with a multidisciplinary expert panel through a modified Delphi method, distributed across Australian public and private health sectors. Only 42.5% understood the role and scope of sports and exercise physicians, and only 20% were familiar with referral pathways to SEM services. Junior doctors were significantly more likely to express confusion about SEM. Near-unanimous agreement (92.5%) supported the concept that exercise is medicine, and strong majorities felt SEM would be valuable in current practice (63.3%) and in the public health system (82.5%). Limitations include the relatively small sample size and non-randomised open invitation participation, which may not represent the overall medical doctor population, though responder bias would likely skew toward more familiarity with SEM.