Ask the Expert 2025

Dr. Cassandra Lee
UC Davis Health Sports Orthopaedics

UC Davis Health has provided care or consultation for Olympic, pro and college athletes and teams. Is this available to the general public too?

Yes! We care for active people of all levels—from elite athletes, to weekend warriors, to people starting exercise programs for well-being and longevity. We treat both routine and complex injuries, and focus on getting patients back to the highest activity level possible, whether that means competing in a recreation league, training for your first or tenth marathon, hiking or biking.

You were recently among the nation’s first surgeons to use two new implants for knee arthritis. Can you tell us more about that?

For people who want to remain active and don’t have end-stage knee arthritis, these implants are some of the joint preservation techniques we can use to help delay knee replacements. As an academic medical center, we not only help develop joint preservation technologies, but can also offer these new treatments quickly when they do become available to the public. For people who do have end-stage arthritis, we provide knee replacements from world-class orthopaedic surgeons.

Does sports medicine always involve surgery?

Thankfully not! Our sports medicine team involves experts from multiple fields, including non-surgical ones, and our surgeons also perform non-surgical injury management. Our program offers physical medicine and rehabilitation, sports performance and nutrition, fitness assessments and more. We all work together to optimize outcomes for our patients.

3301 C St. Sacramento. 916-734-6805.
1120 Hutchison Dr. Davis. 530-702-2000.
health.ucdavis.edu/sports-medicine