Medical Support For All

Moscow was the setting on Thursday for the “Medical Support for the Major Hockey League” seminar, organized by the medical service of the Major Hockey League (VHL) for its clubs’ medical staff.

In his introduction, VHL managing director Herman Skoropupov emphasized the importance of the event:
“The Major Hockey League pays considerable attention to medicine in sport. Safeguarding the health of the players is perhaps our most important task, and to underline its importance we have the first training seminar organized for doctors. The role of the doctor, particularly in professional sport but also in our lives in general, is an enormous one. And we do not forget this.”

The head of the KHL’s medical center, Nikolai Durmanov, addressed the gathered medics on the specifics of medical support in the VHL championship:
“Unfortunately, at many clubs the leadership has underestimated the role of medical support in modern sport, and this is a big problem. Hockey teams are built on players, and a player’s health is his biggest asset. Therefore, it is absolutely imperative that we elevate medicine to its rightful place among the main priorities in a hockey club’s core activities. In no way do we want to complicate your lives. Our goal is to be beneficial. This means organizing the work of a club’s medical service on a level which meets international standards, rendering assistance in medical support and treatment for the VHL’s players in expert centers across the Russian Federation and even abroad if necessary, enabling the development and introduction of effective medical and anti-doping educational programs, and helping formulate lists of approved nourishment for sportsmen plus other products for recuperation or improved performance of the players. And this is far from being a complete list of all aspects of our cooperation.

The head of the VHL medical service, Natalya Polenova, went into more detail about the collaboration with the club medics:
“The players’ pre-season medical examinations will soon be with us, and during this time your best and most useful friend will be the Medical Portal. This is a well-protected database in which you can enter not just the results of the players’ pre-season examinations but also their injuries and other important information.”

During the seminar there were speeches about the structure and staff of the players’ pre-season tests, the specifics of cardiac monitoring, criteria for allowing exercise for sportsmen with cardio-vascular problems and many other topics.

The seminar stretched to three hours and had a constructive and genial atmosphere. For many of the club specialists the proposed innovations from the medical center were seen as pleasant revelations and gave them a definite optimism.

”The organizers did a marvelous job: everything was accepted and understood, helped in no small part by the good-natured and relaxed atmosphere. When disputes did arise they were resolved in a business-like fashion, with no hysteria. We acquired specific theoretical knowledge, and now it is important we put in into practice, to bring together all we have learned: to take our ideas to the players, and so keep them in professional sport for as long as possible. For the clubs in the Major League all these questions are very real,” was the summary from Dmitry Zhuchkov, club doctor at Diesel of Penza.

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