A sports injury prevention and treatment training program for medical staff serving at the Aug. 19-30 Taipei 2017 Summer Universiade, the biggest global sporting event ever staged in Taiwan, is positioning the country as an international leader in devising and implementing models of world-class health care for participants in large-scale athletic events.
Initiated by the Universiade Organizing Committee under Taipei City Government in collaboration with Taipei Society of Physical Therapist, the program is the first of its kind in Taiwan. It aims to further upgrade the knowledge and skills of local medical staff tasked with providing comprehensive on-site sports injury treatment at the games.
UOC spokesman Yang Ching-tang said the program will help create a more professional sporting environment for athletes while exposing local medical staff to a variety of cases not normally encountered during their day-to-day duties in clinics and hospitals. The experience of hosting the Universiade will also assist Taiwan in better integrating resources, attracting more professional talents in the sports medicine sector and boosting the popularity of sport with the public, he added.
Similarly bullish on the merits of the program is Chen Hsing-yu, a physiotherapist with the Sports Medicine Center at National Taiwan University Hospital in Taipei. As all participants successfully completing the training will be registered in a database, the initiative will definitely benefit the nation in terms of hosting major sporting events going forward, he said.
According to Chen, athletic trainers are usually responsible for on-site sports injury management in Taiwan. But under the program, most of the participants are physiotherapists, meaning a more sophisticated standard of treatment and rehabilitation will be available to injured athletes, he said.
Launched in 2015, the program is facilitated by nearly 40 professionals in such areas as athletic training, physical education, sports medicine and sports physiotherapy. The 11-session program, which is open only to accredited athletic trainers or physiotherapists, is expected to produce nearly 1,000 graduates, according to the UOC.
Chiu Chuang-yuan, a section chief with the Sports Injury Prevention section under the Catering and Sports Injury Prevention Division of the UOC, said five of the 11 sessions are general modules, with the remainder advanced modules. The general modules include courses on the basic rules of various sports, regulations for referees, and principles of sports psychology and training, while the advanced modules encompass emergency care, and sports injury evaluation and management, she added.
The Universiade, also known as the World University Games, is an international sporting and cultural festival staged every two years in a different city worldwide. The 29th edition of the games in Taipei involves 7,700-plus university athletes from 150 countries contesting 21 sports at 38 competition venues around northern Taiwan. (SCK-E)
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