Israel's football medical community were among the latest to benefit from UEFA's innovative Football Doctor Education Programme (FDEP), which sees national associations pass on vital medical knowledge and expertise to aid medical staff in their essential work.

Seventeen physicians – including Israel national team and club staff members – attended the FDEP course on emergency treatment of players in Tel Aviv and were taught by seven experienced medical experts, including internal and emergency medicine specialists, cardiac specialists and anaesthesiologists. Dr David Aladgem, head of the emergency surgery department at Tel-Aviv Medical Centre, chief physician to the Israel Under-21 team and UEFA Football Doctor Education Programme participant, was course director, while UEFA Medical Committee member Dr Ian Beasley served as guest lecturer and UEFA observer.

The FDEP, which was launched in early 2011, provides education and instruction on the crucial role of the modern football doctor. It helps with the emergency treatment of players, the functions and responsibilities of the football doctor, diagnosis and treatment of injuries, prevention and rehabilitation of injuries and anti-doping. Content has been compiled and developed in collaboration with the UEFA Medical Committee and sports medicine experts.

The programme content is being filtered down through the associations via events at national level. The aim is to assist national associations' medical officials in cascading the knowledge shared in senior international football down to the medical staff and club doctors at all levels. To pass on knowledge as quickly and effectively as possible, UEFA lends medical emergency training kit and supplies educational tools such as technical handbooks, trained course delegates as advisers and an extensive online platform with learning facilities.

"The course in Israel was a perfect example of how UEFA's Football Doctor Education Programme is being cascaded across Europe, and how knowledge and expertise in elite football medicine is being shared among all European doctors involved in elite football," said Dr Beasley.

"The Israeli workshop easily achieved the high standards set by UEFA in ensuring that skills are effectively disseminated at national level, by offering a course taught by a range of skilled emergency care and cardiology specialists. As long as this kind of excellent educational work continues within national associations, the UEFA Medical Committee's mission to ensure the best possible care for players in its competitions will be successfully achieved."