Representatives of FFA Medical Department participated in UEFA Medical Symposium

3 representatives of FFA Medical Department participated in the UEFA Medical Symposium, which was held in Frankfurt, Germany. In an interview with the FFA official website, the head of the FFA Medical Department Narek Vanesyan spoke about the discussed topics, experience exchange programs, expected news and achievements.

"Every four years, the UEFA Medical Service organizes a UEFA medical symposium. This year it was the 8th such event that took place in Frankfurt. Delegations of almost all UEFA member associations participated, about 400 doctors from different countries.

The Armenian delegation was represented by 3 doctors. I, Narek Vanesyan, as the head of the FFA Medical Department, BKMA-2 doctor Andranik Garibyan and the doctor of the Women's U-17 team Marieta Davidyan.

It was a very intense three-day program, one day of which was completely dedicated to the health of women, taking into account that their injuries or the processes occurring in their bodies differ from the characteristics of men's bodies. During the symposium, it was decided that the UEFA Women's Sports Medicine Committee will be formed and we will definitely join it.

The program of the symposium was very useful for us, because we were able to get  the answers to many questions that we wanted to get in Armenia, in our universities or in other places, but because of the lack of experience, it was impossible.

In particular, we are talking about the neurological and concussion problems of football players, as well as the measures implemented in the pre-traumatic, traumatic and post- traumatic rehabilitation process. We also had a very active discussion about doping and the requirements of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

The importance of such events is that during this event we also met our colleagues from different European countries.

In this part, I want to emphasize the importance of meeting the heads of medical services of several countries and clubs. The first one was our meeting with Niko Mihic, the head of the medical service of FC Real Madrid, whom we already met last year in Madrid. It was decided that we will form a CRM platform, where the FFA and the Spanish club doctors will participate in educational events and have general discussions.

I also attach great importance to the meeting with the head of the Dutch medical service. A preliminary agreement has been reached to organize a large educational workshop in Armenia in April, during which he will deliver a lecture.

The third meeting was with Johnny Gordon, the head of the medical service of the Scottish National team. He is considered one of the top specialists in the field of football medicine in providing first aid or specialized medical care to athletes. We discussed the digitalization of athletes' medical information and the creation of a system for exchanging that digitalized information.

We also met with Zoran Bahtijarevic, the head of the UEFA Medical Service team, presented them the reforms implemented in the FFA Medical Department over the past year, and exchanged views on further development directions.

Over the last year, this is the second such educational event at which the FFA is represented. The possibility of holding the next forum in Armenia will be discussed.

During the symposium, there was also a practical part, where participants improved their practical skills on various simulators. We plan to organize a similar event for the Armenian clubs doctors.

In the near future, our stadiums and Football Academy will be equipped with new spinal immobilization equipments, we will have such first aid equipments, analogues of which were used earlier, but they are more advanced in their functionality.

I consider the symposium as a smart symposium, because both the scientific part and the products of supporters and sponsors, which are used in football medicine today are smart. We must gradually achieve the implementation of this smart part of medicine in Armenia."