Paediatric Sport and Exercise Medicine

Exercise is medicine for healthy children as well as for children with chronic disease. This course will give a thorough introduction into paediatric sport and exercise medicine.

During this week you will learn the application of physiological knowledge in clinical practice. We will have several practical demonstrations during this week. There will be demonstrations on how to do a cardiopulmonary exercise test, field fitness test and body composition.

Paediatric health professionals now acknowledge the utility of exercise and exercise testing in diagnosis, treatment, and the primary and secondary prevention of chronic childhood conditions. Exercise testing has also been acknowledged as a useful tool in the monitoring of disease states and in assessing response to therapy. In this course we will summarize and discuss some of the current evidence and understanding of clinical paediatric exercise physiology focusing on the work our research group in the Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital and others have performed in the last decade in a variety of chronic conditions. There will be demonstrations showing how to do a cardiopulmonary exercise test, field fitness test and body composition.

Students (Ba, Ma, PhD) as well as professionals working in the field of sports or health care are welcome.

This course aims to increase students’ knowledge about paediatric sports end exercise medicine. In addition, the lectures and practical sessions provide the students a better insight into the clinical exercise physiology research performed in the Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital of the UMC Utrecht.

In 2024 this summer school will be delivered as a face-to-face course on the Utrecht Science Park.