Doctor education course in Spain

As the medical sector within football continues to gain in importance and exposure, football doctors in Spain have profited from UEFA's Football Doctor Education Programme (FDEP) to bolster their knowledge about injury diagnosis and treatment at a seminar in Madrid, hosted by the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF).

The programme and its related national courses across Europe are leading to the transmission of essential information and expertise throughout the European sports medical community.

Programme content is being filtered down through the member associations through the staging of FDEP courses at national level, such as the event in Spain, which was attended by 19 club and national-team doctors, and a medical representative from the Andorran Football Federation (FAF). The newly-appointed vice-chairwoman of the UEFA Medical Committee, Dr Helena Herrero, was the course leader for the gathering.

Diagnosis and treatment of injuries is just one of the topics included in the programme. Other themes include on-field medical emergencies, roles and responsibilities of the football doctor, prevention and rehabilitation of injuries and the campaign to eliminate doping from the game.

The FDEP's content has been developed and compiled in collaboration with the UEFA Medical Committee and sports medicine experts.

The FDEP programme involves face-to-face workshops, during which doctors learn and practise techniques with an online e-learning support platform containing instructional videos, tests of participants' knowledge and process guidelines for doctors to refer to at any time.

An online forum also enables course participants to discuss and resolve key issues between themselves outside of the courses. All of these activities are designed to equip doctors from UEFA's 54 member associations with the necessary skills to fulfil their important roles within the game.

Participants undergo a testing process at the end of each course, so that an evaluation can be made to evaluate the skills and knowledge obtained. The evaluation is important – in addition to learning crucial skills, all participants learn how to 'cascade' their own version of the course for doctors in their own country. This ensures that only those participants who demonstrate competence in the topic area are authorised to pass know-how on to their peers at a 'cascaded' workshop.

Thoughts on the course and UEFA's football doctor education activities:

Dr Helena Herrero (UEFA Medical Committee), course leader: It was important for the RFEF to organise the UEFA Football Doctor Education Programme about injury diagnostics and treatment in football. The course was attended by high-profile football doctors who all profited from the high quality information about the most common injuries in football and the best treatment practices. The FDEP is a prestigious programme, and the RFEF is proud to be the first NA to cascade workshop two.

Dr José Antonio Rodas, Spain Under-17 team doctor: The course was superb and it helped me broaden my scientific knowledge. I would wholeheartedly recommend this seminar to doctors working in football. [Football in Spain] is benefitting an awful lot, especially in terms of improved care and in the opening up of new areas of research.

Dr Lorenzo García Camacho, Spain Under-18 team doctor: There's no question that I've learned new things. Courses like this allow doctors to exchange knowledge on a permanent basis, which is always good. I definitely feel better equipped to attend to the needs of a football team during training sessions, trips and matches.