Aspetar, Doha’s leading orthopaedic and sports medicine hospital, has announced that it is organising an International Conference on Medicine and Science in Athletics to coincide with the 2019 IAAF Doha Diamond League athletics event.
The conference will take place at Aspire Academy’s Football Performance Centre from May 3 to 5.
Experts from Qatar, Germany, the UK, France, the Netherlands, the US, Australia, South Africa and Canada are due to attend the scientific gathering – expected to be “one of the most exciting in this field”, Aspetar has said in a press statement.
Dr Paul Dijkstra, director of Medical Education at Aspetar and chairperson of the Scientific Planning Committee, said: “Not only will this conference cover a number of important topics on injury and illness management and prevention, but it will also stimulate debate on medical and coaching teamwork to help athletes perform at their best. Everyone has something to learn at this conference.”
The sport science sessions will include lectures and interactive discussions on performance optimisation, nutrition and how to prepare athletes for travel before a competition. Besides the scheduled sessions, participants can choose from multiple practical symposiums and clinical anatomy sessions at Aspetar’s Sports Surgery Training Centre. These will upskill attendees on clinical anatomy of the upper and lower limb – both highly relevant to athletics.
Dr Juan-Manuel Alonso, Aspetar’s Sports Medicine physician and the medical director of the IAAF World Championships Doha 2019, said: “This is the year of athletics in Doha, with Qatar soon hosting the IAAF Diamond League and the IAAF World Championships in Athletics, held for the first time in the Middle East. For this reason, we have tried to match each topic with a world-leading subject matter expert. As a result, over three days, the participants will learn about the most important topics from clinicians and scientists with extensive clinical and research experience.”
The list of confirmed international speakers include Dr Kathryn Ackerman, Harvard Medical School, US; Dr Clare Ardern, Karolinska Institute, Sweden; Dr Douglas Casa, University of Connecticut, US; Professor Jill Cook and Dr Andrea Mosler, La Trobe University, Australia; Dr Mark Hutchinson, University of Illinois at Chicago; Professor Andrew Jones, University of Exeter, the UK; Prof Karim Khan, University of British Columbia, Canada; Dr Martin Schwellnus, University of Pretoria, South Africa; Dr Trent Stellingwerff, Canadian Sport Institute Pacific; and Dr Adam Weir, Erasmus University Hospital, the Netherlands.
Those interested in attending can find the agenda, full list of speakers and registration portal on Aspetar’s website – www.aspetar.com/events.aspx.