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Sports Medicine in our four neighbour countries

It is indeed quite a challenge to define sports medicine in a way that suits the greatest number. The reason is that the speciality involves a wide scope of different healthcare measures for a very broad population, from professional athletes to recreative active individuals. It contains diagnostic, curative, rehabilitative and preventive medical measures, on the field, in the clinic and the medical office or even in the physiology laboratory. And this heterogeneity also concerns the physicians practicing – or pretending it! – sports medicine.

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Exercise Referral in Germany

Primary care physicians in Germany are potentially in a pivotal position to provide physical activity counselling and exercise referral for their patients. The preventative prescription scheme dates back to the late 1970s. This scheme called “green prescription” (Grünes Rezept), however, could not be established as exercise referral scheme in primary care on a regular and systematic basis. After the German Medical Association (Bundesärztekammer), the German Association for Sports Medicine and Prevention (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sportmedizin und Prävention) and the German Olympic Sports Federation (Deutscher Olympischer Sportbund) had developed the standardized national quality criteria of Physical Activity on Prescription in a joint effort, the German Medical Association has adopted them in 2011 and now recommends them to the Medical Associations of the Federal States for implementation.