FIFA establishes Medical Centre of Excellence in Sweden
The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) has selected the Stockholm Sports Trauma Research Centre as a "FIFA Medical Centre of Excellence". This is the first time that FIFA judges a research centre in Sweden to possess sufficient medical expertise in the field.
According to Mikael Santoft, secretary general of the Swedish Football Association, the Stockholm Sports Trauma Research Centre has amassed unique competence and managed to gather medical care, research and education under one and the same roof. This is the result of an effective collaboration between Karolinska Institutet, the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, Sophiahemmet, the Capio Artro Clinic and the Astrid Lindgren Children´s Hospital at Karolinska University Hospital.
"We are naturally proud and delighted by this announcement and it will encourage continuing development in the football-medicine field," says Professor Suzanne Werner, director of the Stockholm Sports Trauma Research Centre at Karolinska Institutet.
The "FIFA Medical Centre of Excellence" concept reflects FIFAs intention to improve football-medical care in both the short and long term by focusing on prevention, the treatment of injury and research.
"This strengthens our relationship with sport, particularly football, and it´s football that accounts for an incomparably large number of our sporting injuries," explains Magnus Forssblad, orthopaedist and CEO of the Capio Artro Clinic.
Karin Henriksson-Larsén, president of the Swedish School of Sport and Health Science, hopes that the collaboration with the Stockholm Sports Trauma Research Centre and the Capio Artro Clinic will intensify.
"Our shared intention is for the area around Sophiahemmet, the School of Sport and Health Science and Stockholm Stadion to become one large sporting campus," she says.
The Stockholm Sports Trauma Research Centre
The Stockholm Sports Trauma Research Centre at Karolinska Institutet conducts research and education in the field of sports. The centre is based at the Sophiahemmet in Stockholm, and aims to become a national hub for activities in sports medicine and a platform for international collaboration. The centre´s research is currently focused on knee injuries, particularly of the anterior cruciate ligament. The centre examines everything from causes and risk factors, to treatment, rehabilitation and return to sport. The objective of the cause and risk analyses for injury is to find a pattern that can be useful in the design of preventative measures.