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In Europe, participation in physical activities has been growing among people of all ages. Thus, there is an increasing demand for care relating to “sports medicine”, and this has promoted the development of specialised sports physicians. Sports medicine involves a wide range of professionals taking care of an active population of recreational and competitive athletes upon different aspects: curative, rehabilitative and preventive. In light of a higher demand of expertise and sport-specific body of knowledge—such as a further development of the “doping phenomenon”—with all the related moral, legal and health implications, the sport physician has to deal with a more complex picture. As a result, the need to provide prevention at all levels has become one of the most important objectives of sports medicine. This article aims to give a brief overview of the state of this specialty in Europe and to describe definitions, scopes and educational perspectives of the Sport Medicine Specialty Training Core Curriculum to be adopted in the European Union (EU).
How countries vary with respect to specialisation
Sports medicine is a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary clinical and academic medical specialty that can also be structured as a subspecialty (or so called additional, secondary or super-specialty) following other medical specialities. In some countries, where no specialisation courses are offered, postgraduate studies (master of science (MSc) and doctor of philosophy (PhD) degrees) are provided. In order to analyse the status of the sports medicine educational activities in the European countries, the European Federation of Sports Medicine Associations (EFSMA) and the European Olympic …
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Competing interests None.
Provenance and Peer review Commissioned; not externally peer reviewed.