A two-day IOC Sports Cardiology Course organised by Aspetar Aspetar experts to lead a workshop on “Preventing Sudden Cardiac Death in Elite Athletes". Doha: 20th October 2014 – As one of the world’s leading sports medicine hospitals, Aspetar has invited leading sports cardiology experts from around the world to take part in a two-day IOC Sports Cardiology Course (20 to 21 October) titled “Preventing Sudden Cardiac Death in Elite Athletes.”. The educational course aims to provide National Olympic Committee NOC team physicians from around the world with the most up-to-date academic and practical information on investigating the prevention of sudden cardiac death in elite athletes. Aspetar will assist 20 NOC team physicians from developing countries currently working with Olympic and international athletes. Dr. Khalifa Al Kuwari, Aspetar Director General, declared:

“Organising this training course at Aspetar demonstrates our commitment and interest to interact with international sports medicine programmes; to exchange and spread our medical knowledge and recent findings in the area of sports cardiology to protect athletes from sudden death; and to help physicians working in the same field but from different developing countries”.

Dr. Hakim Chalabi, Assistant Director General for International Medical Affairs and Programmes & Centres of Excellence, said:

“We have invited a number of recognised experts in the area of sports cardiology to work with Aspetar in educating these NOC physicians from countries who have not had access to high-level sports cardiology education. Aspetar has been chosen to host the two-day IOC Sports Cardiology Course and will serve as a perfect setting for this event. The medical staff working for an NOC is responsible for treating athletes, but actually the main responsibility is to come up with tools to prevent sudden cardiac death and to keep athletes healthy”.

Throughout the two-day event, the world’s best researchers in the field will present evidence-based information on methods to prevent sudden cardiac death, using a multidisciplinary perspective. Many of the experts, including Professor Sanjay Sharma (cardiologist), Professor Antonio Pelliccia (cardiologist and IOC medical & scientific group member), and Professor Jon Drezner (sports medicine physician and Super Bowl winning physician) will present their experience of collectively screening over 50,000 athletes. Commenting on the event, Professor Mathew Wilson, Head of Athlete Health and Performance Research, said: “We will present several topics related to the cardiovascular adaptation that occurs with regular and intensive exercise, including the impact of age, gender, ethnicity, and sporting discipline. We will also present our work on managing and developing safety and emergency procedures for sudden cardiac arrest in the sporting arena. Aspetar’s medical staff has screened over 9,000 athletes and continues to educate Qatar’s club and federation doctors regarding pre-participation screening.”. Aspetar is the first group in the world to publish data on cardiovascular adaptations to exercise in those of Arabic ethnicity when we examined the prevalence of ECG.