Wexford GAA Announce UPMC Sports Medicine as Official Healthcare Partner

7 October 2021 – Wexford GAA have announced that UPMC Sports Medicine is to become their Official Healthcare Partner. The partnership agreement means that UPMC, which offers trusted, high-quality health services at UPMC Whitfield Hospital and the UPMC Sports Medicine Clinic in Waterford, UPMC Aut Even Hospital in Kilkenny and other facilities across Ireland, will work with Wexford GAA to offer inter-county players top-class care and attention in sports injury and preventative care.

“UPMC is recognised globally as a leader in sports medicine, rehabilitation and orthopaedics and is delighted to be working to find innovative ways to support the well-being of Wexford GAA’s players on and off the field,” said John Windle, general manager of UPMC Sports Medicine in Ireland.

Windle continued “UPMC is proud to become the official healthcare partner of Wexford GAA. UPMC has a long tradition of caring for athletes at all levels, including the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pittsburgh Penguins in the United States and in Ireland as the official healthcare partner of the GAA and GPA.”

Mícheál Martin, Chairperson of Wexford GAA, said, ”Player welfare is a core value of Wexford GAA. We are delighted to announce UPMC as our Official Healthcare Partner. It will be a mechanism for our players across both codes to access best-in-class sports medicine services and will allow us to assist our medical teams in providing healthcare to our players in line with international best practice in a range of areas.’’

He continued, “Our strategic plan, ‘Ar Aghaidh Linn le Chéile’ (Onwards Together), outlines our vision for the next decade. Within our plan, we have set performance goals for both hurling and football. We look forward to working with UPMC to develop best-in-class ways to safeguard the health and wellbeing of our players to benefit the players as individuals and our inter-county teams as a whole.”

The UPMC Sports Medicine Clinic is the health system’s first international location dedicated to sports medicine and this partnership announced today will offer a wide variety of equipment and services to Wexford GAA, including:

• AlterG® Antigravity Treadmill™, which allows for pain-free lower extremity rehabilitation by reducing gravitational forces in a fall-safe environment;
• Biodex technology, which guides return to play with validated, quantitative outcomes data obtained through computerised measurement of muscle function and output;
• Blood flow restriction rehabilitation, which uses a specialised tourniquet system to reduce blood flow to an extremity with the goal of increasing strength using low weight loads to mimic training at high loads;
• and Winback and shockwave therapy, two non-invasive, evidence-based treatments that accelerate healing from sports-related injuries.