Dr. Lambert (above) checks Moro's neck
and back after a game.

"I tell my students that sideline medicine is one of the toughest challenges a physician can take on," the practitioner says. "You have no x-rays, MRIs or lab tests to rely on. All you have are your hands and your medical knowledge. And with that, you decide whether or not a player is done for the day."

Lambert says her first love, however, will always be family medicine. "Occasionally someone will suggest I practice only sports medicine," she says. "But I would never give up the family practice. I want to know my patients, from month-to-month and year-to-year, and have an impact on their lives.

"To me, there's no greater challenge or reward than taking care of an entire family, from birth to death," she states.

And she particularly enjoys doing that at SOM. Unlike many other medical schools, she says, at SOM there is a collegial atmosphere of cooperation that fosters caring. Lambert also believes strongly in the osteopathic philosophy of treating the body as an integrated whole, rather than as a collection of individual organ systems. For this reason, the majority of osteopathic medical students go into primary care.

The philosophy also includes the theory that there is an interrelationship between the musculoskeletal system and the other body systems. Osteopathic medical students get several hundred extra hours of training in osteopathic principles and practices, which includes manipulative therapy. This hands-on treatment optimizes the body structure, thus enhancing body function and healing. The training also enables osteopathic physicians to palpate certain body structures, which often helps in making diagnoses. Lambert is as dedicated to her own family as she is to the families she treats. She and her husband John, married in 1995, have a six-month-old son, named after his dad, whom they call Jack. "One of the many wonderful things about becoming a mother is that I have gained new insight into parenthood," she says, "and that's very helpful in my practice."

They have formed a team at home too, the physician says, and her husband is a tremendous player. "He's always ready to pitch in, when I can't be there," she says. "He's great." In the precious little spare time she spends at home, Lambert loves relaxing with her husband and son. Getting together with her siblings and parents is important to her, too. She sometimes even finds time to putter in her garden, play racket sports and the piano. "I'm constantly trying to balance teaching, clinical medicine and the sideline sports with home," she says. "It's a challenge, but it's working out."

As for the future, Lambert would like to do more of the same. She wants more children, and plans to stay at SOM. "I love what I do," she says. "I want to continue to have an impact on the next generation of physicians."