ALTON, IL -- Getting athletes back in the game is a big part of the job for Dr. Janiece Stewart, a new Sports Medicine specialist for Alton Memorial Hospital. Dr. Stewart, a Belleville native and Belleville East High School graduate, is based at BJC Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Specialists in Edwardsville and also has office hours at Alton Orthopedic Clinic.
“I went to medical school to be a surgeon, but it was about my third day in the OR that I realized that wasn’t exactly for me,” Dr. Stewart said. “I was at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago when I did a rotation with one of the Sports Medicine physicians and fell I in love with it immediately.”
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Dr. Stewart is the head team physician for Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and spends each Thursday afternoon in the SIUE campus training room treating the athletes.
“It is very nice to see the athletes in their own environment,” she said. “I see maybe eight to 10 athletes during that time each week. My goal is to keep them healthy and ensure they get back on the field, court or mat as quickly and as safely as possible. It’s very satisfying to see an athlete succeed and know that I had something to do with helping them.”
Dr. Stewart earned her medical degree and completed an Internal Medicine-Pediatrics residency at Rush University Medical Center in 2001 and went on to complete a Sports Medicine fellowship at San Jose-O’Connor Hospital in California. She has also served as team physician at Saint Louis University, the Gateway Grizzlies, and at Collinsville and Belleville East high schools.
Dr. Stewart is trained to provide care for a variety of sports medicine patients (children and adults) for injuries to joints, muscles, tendons, ligaments or bones. She additionally is trained to address issues associated with nutrition and sports psychology as well as counsel athletes on injury prevention.
“We also offer sports physicals at our office (8 Sunset Hills Professional Center in Edwardsville),” Dr. Stewart. “And I am active with Dr. Aaron Omotola with sports clinics each Saturday during the football season. Dr. Omotola is an excellent physician and does a wonderful job with the young athletes.”
Dr. Omotola, a board-certified orthopedic surgeon who joined the AMH staff in 2010, is from the Chicago area and earned his medical degree at Saint Louis University School of Medicine. He earned his undergraduate degree in Biology at Xavier University of Louisiana in 1999, spent two years of residency in Los Angeles after medical school and completed his orthopedic surgery training in New Orleans in 2009.
He was one of the few orthopedic surgery residents in the country selected to participate in the Clinician Scientist Development Program sponsored by the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS), the Orthopedic Research and Education Foundation and the Orthopedic Research Society.
For more information about Dr. Stewart, Dr. Omotola or the sports clinics, contact BJC Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Specialists (8 Sunset Hills Professional Center in Edwardsville) at 618-692-6109 or Alton Orthopedic Clinic (Suite 130 of Medical Office Building B on theAMH campus) at 618-463-7600.
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