EDITORIALSport
Medicine –
European Speciality
Maria
Mirela
Vasilescu
Vicepresident of Romanian Society for Sports Medicine
Everybody
agrees
that in medicine it’s
easier to prevent then to treat and the present preoccupations, on a
global scale, of the factors who decide the health politics in the
civilized countries amplifies the sense of this syntagma. Occidental
states , confronted with an alarming growth of mortality induced by a
wrong lifestyle, offers an consistent support to programs who promote
a correct alimentation, physical exercise, the elimination of drug
abuse, alcohol, smoking etc.
Starting from multiple aspects of
the lifestyle and the implications that the high degree of
civilization induces, we must accept the negative relationship that
is created between a high socio economic state and the individuals
degree of sedentary.
From this perspective, the preventing of a
sedentary life through physical exercise represents, one of the major
ways that society has to conserve the state of heath of its
individuals, to prevent and treat there diseases.
Unfortunately,
in Romania, the ones who conceive the health politics still
don’t
understand the importance of promoting an active lifestyle, they
don’t understand or don’t want to understand the
obvious proofs
offered by the scientific world regarding the role that the regular
physical exercise has in decreasing the rate of sickness and
prolonging the average life duration.
This last observation is
strengthened also by the way sports medicine is seen and treated in
Romania. If the US and the other civilized countries of Europe, and
not only these, offer a great attention to the development of medics
in the specialty of sportive medicine, in our country the Ministry of
Health, under the pretext of the concern regarding the fate of the
medics that operate in this sector and who would choose to undertake
there activity in a country that does not recognize this specialty,
dismisses the learning curricula for sport medicine.
The
decision, criticized by those who have knowledge of the wide
implications that the physical effort, and sportive effort
particularly, has on the state of health on human organism, comes in
a complete contradiction with the preoccupations of the specialists
in the sport medicine and the officials of the European Union of
Medical Specialities that take action to promote the acceptance of
this medical specialty in all of the European Union countries.
In
this context, I think its imperative to say its necessary the
presenting of the efforts undertaken on the European scale, in the
European Union, to generalize the sport medicine specialty.
The
process of recognizing the specialty of sports medicine in the UE has
been presented by the professor Norbert Bachl, president of EFSMA, at
the EFSMA Congress in Cyprus, 2005.
We’re
presenting, in the
following, some of the necessary steps for the recognizing of the
sport medicine specialty in UE, as it has been presented by professor
Bachl.
With
regard to cooperation with the EOC-Medical
Commision,
of which he is one of the members, he reported on the common work
done for collecting data on Sports Medicine specialization and
sub-specialization Courses in the European Countryes. Curentlly, 19
European Countryes run sports medicine specialization courses and 15
sub- specilization ones. He carryed on giving important information
on the state of the sports medicine in Europe and ont he work done so
far to reach the objective on the recognition of Sport Medicine at EU
level. He reported on the meeting EFSMA – UEMS, held in
Brussels on
the 26th July 2005, to which he participated together with prof.
Pigozzi, Dr. Debruyne and the UEMS Secretary General, Dr. Bernard
Maillet.
During
the discussion it resulted that at present
52
specialities are recognized in the EU. Nowadays, for having a
specialty recognized in the EU (at present 25 countryes) it is
necessary to have 2/5 og the member countryes recognizing the
specialty, in this case Sport Medicine, which means at least 10
countryes. The procedure is quite complex but the 2/5 is considered a
pre- requisite. Once the procedure of recognition is opened by the
European Commision, the request is looked after by the Senior
Officiers of Public Health of the EU Countries. It was suggested to
create a MJC, a Multidisciplinary Joint Committee, as a proposal by
one of the existing Sections of the UEMS if a specialty is recognised
by at least 1/3 of the UEMS Member Countries and that it is mentioned
in the list of the European Comission. The main aim of a MJC is to
imrove the relationship between differant Sections and also to
propose harmonized training programmes. In the Sections., each
country has two Delegates endorsed by the National Medical
Organization, representing the country at the Management Council. The
Councils has the decision power, is formed by Full Member Countries
and Associated Member Countries; only Full Member Countries have
voting rights.
By
proposing a clear harmonised training
programme, Sports Medicine can enhance its position in Europe. That
would be the aim of the newly formed MJC.
To this
regards, Prof.
Donner, President of the Section of Pneumology, wrote to the UEMS on
18th August 2005 a letter proposing the creation of this MJC, in
order to be inclded as item of the agenda for the Meeting of the
Management Council which will take place in Munich, on 20-22 October
, 2005. Should this project be realized in duecourse as planned, the
MJC first Meeting in Brussels could be held on 17th Decmber 2005.
The
MJC
would be composed by two delegates of each
Section
interested in plying a role in this matter, and by an equal number of
representatives of the EFSMA to be a Board that could also play a
role in the evaluation of requests for accredtations of events. This
board would be responsible for the promotion of Sports Medicine
within the UEMS. Furthermore, this Board should develope a harmonised
curiculum should be accepted by the National Authorities from the
UEMS countries which already have Sports Medicine as a specialization
or are willing to install. If the member of 2/5 of the European
member countries is reached, a process of recognition by the European
Commission could be started.
Its worth to mention, that
starting from the moment of the meeting between the EFSMA and UEMS
authorities, on July 2005, the plan of action proposed has been
executed step by step. In present, there is a Multidisciplinary Joint
Committee on Sport Medicine whose commission takes action to
harmonize the learning curriculum in sportive medicine and the
recognizing of this specialty in all of the EU countries. The next
meeting of the MJC is programmed on the 30th September 2006, at
Brussels.
Through the integration of Romania and Bulgaria at the
1st January 2007 in EU, the prerequisites of the recognition of the
sport medicine specialty will be totally accomplished.