Green Named MLB Medical Director

Gary Green, MD, was appointed Medical Director for Major League Baseball, the Office of the Commissioner announced last Wednesday. Green has a private medical practice in the Village, the Pacific Palisades Medical Group, specializing in internal and sports medicine. Dr. Green has served as a consultant to Major League Baseball on anabolic steroids and performance- enhancing substances since 2003. As Medical Director, Dr. Green will evaluate Baseball’s Drug Prevention and Treatment Programs at the Major and Minor League levels and will make recommendations on updates to the programs. He also will serve as the Office of the Commissioner’s primary liaison to club physicians and certified athletic trainers. He will assist in the development of educational programs and materials and will advise on all issues related to the health and safety of MLB personnel. “Dr. Green has been an outstanding asset to Major League Baseball as a consultant, and we are pleased that this expanded role will provide him an opportunity to make significant contributions to our game,” said MLB Commissioner Bud Selig said. Dr. Green succeeds Elliot Pellman, MD, who will remain in an advisory capacity. Dr. Green currently serves as a clinical professor in the Division of Sports Medicine at The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He has researched performance-enhancing drug use in athletics through the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory. For five years, he chaired the NCAA Committee on drug testing and drug education. Dr. Green, who is board-certified in both Internal Medicine and Sports Medicine, is a fellow in the American College of Physicians and the American College of Sports Medicine. “The reason I think drug testing is important is because it creates a level playing field,” Dr. Green told the Palisadian-Post in 2006. “It also goes to the nature of sports, of playing by the rules. When we do surveys of athletes. They are supportive as long as the testing is applied fairly. “At the professional level, it is part of a collectively bargained issue,” he added. “Each sport tests for specific drugs and most sports have a caveat that you can’t use a related substance.”