About Cindy Chang, MD

Dr. Cindy Chang, MD, is a specialist in primary care sports medicine, with over 25 years of experience caring for athletes of all ages and levels, from archery and aquatic sports to wrestling and wheelchair basketball.  She was the head team physician at the University of California, Berkeley for all 27 intercollegiate sports, including football, for 13 years. She also served as chief medical officer for Team USA during the 2008 Beijing Paralympics and 2012 London Olympics.

As a lifelong competitive athlete, Chang has dealt with multiple injuries of her own, and this personal experience informs her empathetic, individualized approach. She has been a youth sports coach, and her children have played a variety of sports at all levels of competition, with one currently playing Level 1 professional soccer overseas.

Chang enjoys educating her patients about their injuries, sharing findings from examinations and imaging studies, and involving them on decisions regarding appropriate treatment options. She provides referrals to her orthopedic surgeon colleagues or other subspecialists as needed, and also places an emphasis on how to prevent future injury and illness.

Chang sees athletes of all ages at the UCSF Berkeley OutPatient Center (BOPC) and the Sports Medicine Center at the Orthopaedic Institute at Mission Bay.  She sees solely youth athletes at the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Sports Medicine Center for Young Athletes, where she is co-director of the Sports Concussion Program.

Chang's passion lies in education, and she is Program Director of UCSF's Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship. Her clinical research interests focuses on improving health and safety for athletes ranging from schoolchildren to adults, including college athletes and competitors in the Olympics and Paralympics. In addition, she serves on the board of Racing Hearts, a non-profit that works to place automated external defibrillators in schools. As an advocate for a myriad of health and safety-related topics, Chang meets with legislators locally and in Sacramento on the importance of supporting California athletic trainers by licensing their profession.

Chang earned her medical degree from the Ohio State University College of Medicine. She then completed a residency in family medicine at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, followed by a fellowship in sports medicine at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

Chang is a past president of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, serves on the board of trustees for the American College of Sports Medicine and chairs the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee for the California Interscholastic Federation. She recently served on the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee for the National Federation of State High School Associations. Chang provides sports medicine coverage at sporting events in the community, and continues to volunteer as a team physician for UC Berkeley, Berkeley High School, and select USA national teams.