European Federation of Sports Medicine Associations and European Olympic Committees Medical Commission have conducted a survey on the sports medical educational activities in European countries. The analysis of responded questionnaires has revealed the following information; 44 countries have replied the questionnaire. Presently, 19 European countries (Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Rep., Finland, Georgia, The Nederland, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia & Montenegro, Slovenia, Spain, San Marino, Turkey, FYR of Macedonia, United Kingdom and Ukraina) offer sports medicine specialisation. The specialisation period varies between 2 to 5 years. In general, Ministry of Health is the main authority approving specialisation in these countries. Another 15 countries (Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaican, Belgium, Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxemburg, Monaco, Moldova, Poland, Slovakia and Switzerland) run subspeciality programmes. This means, in total, 34 countries carry out sports medicine education. Sports medicine specialisation are being planned to be established in the future in 6 countries (Armenia, Azerbaican, Croatia, Israel, Luxemburg and Malta). Furthermore, 18 countries (including the above mentioned ones) run sports medicine courses, diploma studies and post-graduate education (M.Sc. and doctorate). This shows a clear demand and interest for sports medicine education in most of the European countries.


With regard to European Union (EU) countries, 9 countries (Czech Rep., Finland, Holland, Portugal, Spain, Latvia, Italy , United Kingdom and Slovenia) offer speciality and 6 (Austria, Belgium, France, Hungary, Slovakia and Germany) subspeciality programmes (15 in total). These figures seem to be very promising for future advancement of sports medicine scope in Europe not only with regard to elite athletes but also for the health promotion.

 

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