Athl etic trainers (ATs) have historically functioned in a physician extender role when managing the health of competitive athletes in high school, collegiate, and professional settings. A high level of expertise in the prevention and management of musculoskeletal disorders among physically active individuals has been recognized by physicians who have chosen to utilize ATs as physician extenders in orthopedic and sports medicine clinical operations. The development of postprofessional residency programs that provide specialized education and clinical experiences to prepare ATs to effectively function as orthopedic physician extenders has greatly facilitated physician acceptance of the role, which has dramatically increased the number of ATs working in the orthopedic clinical setting. 1-2 Such residency programs provide ATs with experience in taking detailed patient histories, performing thorough patient exams, and presenting the findings to the attending physician for delivery of efficient and patient-centered care. The physician can focus on making the diagnosis and developing a plan of care, while relying on the AT to provide appropriate therapeutic exercise instructions, educate the patient about the plan of care, and complete specific components of the clinical documentation. [1][2] Previous studies have demonstrated that utilization of the residency-trained AT physician extender (AT-PE) has increased clinical efficiency (i.e., patient volume and revenue generation) and improved patient outcomes. 3-5 Physician satisfaction with this approach to delivery of orthopedic clinical services has not been previously documented. Thus, the purpose of this study was to assess physician satisfaction with the performance of residency-trained AT-PEs in the delivery of orthopedic clinical services. Procedures and FindingsA list of orthopedic clinical practices that have employed AT-PEs who completed one of the 8 existing residency programs was used to identify potential participants in this study. With Institutional Review Board approval, surveys were emailed to 40 sports medicine fellowship-trained orthopedic surgeons and primary care physicians in 11 different states. The response rate was 88% (35/40).A web-based electronic survey was created that included 2 demographic "Yes/ No" questions and 8 Likert-type ratings of degree of satisfaction with the performance Physicians are satisfied with athletic trainers who function as physician extenders.Physicians perceive athletic trainersphysician extenders (AT-PEs) as an asset to their clinical operations.Physicians perceive AT-PEs as skilled providers of orthopedic clinical services.