Sports medicine is a multi-disciplinary field in which specific knowledge of a wide range of medical and conventional specialties combine to help athletes of all levels play their sport in the best possible conditions with maximum security.
The extent of theses activities reflects a concept rather than a specialty. It includes physical fitness examinations, training parameters, the technical aspects of each sport, treating sports-related accidents and disorders, the rehabilitation of injured athletes, health programmes for athletes, nutrition and sport for children, women, and the elderly.
 |
|
It is no longer possible for a single doctor to qualify in sports medicine and treat all of an athlete's needs. Sports medicine is now based on teamwork between medical and paramedical units working closely together and when possible, at a common location. For doctors, who are frequently fiercely independent, this is a new and often enlightenered way of working.
Sports medicine is well established in the US, where it was first conceived. It is the subject of extensive research, seminars, conferences, books and scientific journals. The concept is based on scientific facts from traditional medicine, but has had to adapt some of its principles in the face of certain distinctive features and the particular requirements of sport. Its development has not only improved the medical care provided for athletes, but benefited the man on the street too, with such advances as arthroscopic surgery of the knee and shoulder.
In other fields, the physiological study of the sporting elite has significantly advanced our knowledge of cardiorespiratory endurance and recovery after strenuous activity. The doctors of the Sports Medicine Unit at Clinique Générale-Beaulieu continue to work in this spirit with top athletes and recreational sportsmen and women.
The Clinic and Sports Medicine Unit's facilities provide all the services that athletes have come to expect from sports medicine: ranging from physical examinations to surgical treatment of sporting accidents, and their rehabilitation.
