Dr. Tom Sellers, a double board certified primary care sports medicine physician in the greater Phoenix area, joins Colin Rigney and Ryan Martin. He grew up watching his dad, his partner at Sellers Sports Medicine and Family Practice, cover sports from the sideline, then trained at Creighton and in the sports medicine fellowship at UNLV, where the rule was that the better diagnostician you are, the better proceduralist you will be. Tom explains how point of care ultrasound unlocked prompt care in his clinic: an exam and a scan on the same day instead of weeks of x-rays, physical therapy and an MRI that insurance denies. He walks through why he is team ultrasound, with no injection anywhere in the body that is not image guided, and how a suprascapular nerve block before a supraspinatus PRP keeps lidocaine out of the tissue. Asked where his field will be in 10 years, he sees better orthobiologics, energy modalities like laser and shockwave, and way less surgery, because his favorite thing to say is you don't need surgery. Plus why none of what he does is magic, the osteopathic principle of the body's innate ability to heal, the book Who Not How, and why you can't learn MSK ultrasound in a weekend seminar.
Register for the AMSKU Annual Global Summit '26, Saturday 5 December 2026, fully online
What this episode covers:
- Growing up watching his dad cover sports from the sideline
- Music, philosophy and the call to medicine
- The psychology of pain and injury in sports medicine
- The UNLV sports medicine fellowship: diagnostics first
- Learning after fellowship, apprenticeship style
- Who Not How, and why you can't learn this in weekend seminars
- How ultrasound unlocked prompt care and same-day answers
- The knee pain runaround: x-ray, PT, MRI denied
- Suprascapular nerve blocks and shoulder hydrodilatation
- Team ultrasound: no injection without image guidance
- Nerve blocks before PRP, without lidocaine in the tissue
- Where will your field be in 10 years?
- Better orthobiologics and way less surgery
- Energy modalities: laser and shockwave
- Educating patients one-on-one in the exam room
- None of what I do is magic
- The body is regenerative in nature
- The osteopathic principle: the body's innate ability to heal
- Why a weekend course won't make ultrasound skills stick
- Pain to Progress, Tom's podcast
Links mentioned in this episode:
- Dr. Tom Sellers, Sellers Sports Medicine and Family Practice
- Sellers Sports Medicine on Instagram, @sellerssportsmedfamily
- Pain to Progress, Tom's podcast
- Book: Who Not How
- AMSKU Annual Global Summit '26, Saturday 5 December, fully online. Register
- Every AMSKU MSK ultrasound course
- Questions or comments? Reach us
New episodes every Tuesday. Watch on YouTube, or listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Chapters:
0:00 This week on From Probe to Practice
0:26 From Probe to Practice
0:45 Episode 13: Dr. Tom Sellers of Sellers Sports Medicine
1:55 Growing up watching his dad on the sideline
5:00 Music, philosophy and the call to medicine
8:01 Choosing primary care sports medicine
8:54 The psychology of pain and injury
9:58 The UNLV fellowship: diagnostics first
11:32 Learning after fellowship, apprenticeship style
13:46 Who Not How and weekend seminars
14:50 Advice for clinicians on the same path
16:08 Ultrasound unlocked prompt care
18:36 The knee pain runaround
20:29 Favorite procedure: suprascapular nerve blocks
22:22 Team ultrasound: always image guided
23:19 Nerve blocks before PRP
24:21 Where will your field be in 10 years?
25:56 Better orthobiologics
26:45 Way less surgery
28:20 Surgeons talking about preventing surgery
29:22 Energy modalities: laser and shockwave
30:31 Patients want more natural solutions
31:42 Getting patients to know their options
34:04 None of what I do is magic
34:43 The body is regenerative in nature
35:54 The body's innate ability to heal: being a D.O.
38:13 One of Ryan's favorite episodes
38:55 How Tom's dad connects all of us
39:59 Building a system for learning ultrasound
41:11 Don't learn it on a weekend trip
41:58 Pain to Progress, Tom's podcast
42:37 The AMSKU Global Summit faculty
45:24 Where to find Dr. Tom Sellers
46:48 AMSKU Annual Global Summit '26
48:10 The Kneedles: Don't Let Me Miss You
