Wits to host lecture by FIFA chief medical officer Prof. Jiri Dvorák
The Wits Faculty of Health Sciences has announced that the 2010 AJ Orenstein Memorial Lecture entitled Is football healthy and can health be improved by playing football? FIFA medical legacy for Africa, will take place today, Tuesday, 8 June 2010 at 6pm.
The Faculty will be hosting Prof. Jirí Dvorák, senior consultant in the Department of Neurology, Spine Unit, Schulthess Clinic, Switzerland as well as FIFA chief medical officer and chairman of the FIFA Medical Assessment and Research Centre (F-MARC) as the keynote speaker.
The lecture will take place in the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital Auditorium at the Wits Medical School in Parktown. Prof. Dvorák will be addressing issues relating to the positive aspects of football, research conducted by FIFA and how to implement the activities of the research results into daily life in the framework of FIFA's 'Football for Health' programme.
Czech-born Prof. Dvorák attended pre-clinic semesters at Charles University in Prague. In 1968, he left the Czech Republic for political reasons and continued his studies in Zurich. He graduated in 1974 and was awarded a medical degree in 1976 from the Medical Faculty in Zurich. During his career he has been awarded many prestigious awards. In 1995 he was appointed Professor at the University of Zurich and in 1994 he was appointed F-MARC Chairman and Chief Medical Officer of FIFA in Zurich. In 2005 he was appointed Director of the FIFA Medical Centre of Excellence.
This is an opportunity to meet Professor Dvorák, who will be in South Africa for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and to hear, from the expert, what FIFA's 'Football for health' is all about and how it will impact on South Africa, Africa and the world.
At the lecture Professor Dimitri Constantinou, director of the Centre for Exercise Science and Sport Medicine and Director or the FIFA Medical Centre at Wits, will introduce the publication Football, the emergency manual written by himself in collaboration with Prof. Efraim Kramer and Dr Sello Motaung. The manual is sponsored by FIFA as an official publication to be distributed to all FIFA medical personnel in the 208 FIFA member countries.
To RSVP for the lecture and enquiries please contact +27 (0) 11 717-2067 or email az.ca.stiw@muesum.relda.
