A new faculty for sports and exercise medicine, opening in Dublin, breaks new ground for the country, and for Irish doctors, writes Dr Muiris Houston
The first all-island faculty of sports and exercise medicine will be opened in Dublin tomorrow and will play an important role in promoting exercise in the prevention of disease.
Dr Mick Molloy, consultant physician and rheumatologist at Cork University Hospital and medical adviser to the Irish Rugby Football Union for many years, is to be the first dean of the new faculty.
The institution is one of only four faculties of sports medicine in Europe, according to Dr Molloy.
"We hope to pull together all interested parties to form a body of expertise in the area of sports and exercise medicine", he told The Irish Times.
Dr Molloy says one aim of the faculty, which is a joint venture between the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, is to encourage the use of exercise medicine as a form of preventive health.
He points to osteoporosis and diabetes as just two examples of where the prescription of exercise from childhood would prevent the development of disease among a significant percentage of the population.
Prof Arthur Tanner, a foundation fellow of the new faculty and the team doctor to the Leinster and Ireland A rugby teams, says everyone will benefit from the new faculty.
"We aim to have two streams of training programme - one to provide doctors with a competence in the basics of sports medicine and the other to train a dedicated exercise specialist working in hospital," he says.
At present, many GPs provide medical support to junior GAA or rugby teams without training in sports medicine and the educational courses run by the faculty will help to achieve a standard competence in the discipline.
Tanner hopes the new development will help doctors who are increasingly being asked for pre-exercise advice.
"Take the 50-year-old who has had a heart attack and wants to start playing tennis again - trained doctors will be expert in prescribing exercise in a preventive/advisory capacity," he says.
The aims of the faculty are to:
Achieve recognition for the speciality of sports and exercise medicine in the Republic and Northern Ireland and to act as the recognised training body for the speciality.
Structure training in sports and exercise medicine to provide a specialist service of the highest standard for the health of the Irish population.
Develop and administer professional education and training programmes for GPs with an interest in sports and exercise medicine.
Become the recognised training body for sports and exercise medicine as provided in the Medical Practitioners Act.
Support research in sports and exercise.
The new faculty will be based, for the first five years, in the Royal College of Surgeons, which is providing start-up funding. The faculty hopes to get development money from the Sports Council of Ireland