[The ski camp doctor's role in the the prevention of winter sport accidents].

Skiing is a risky sport for many, even for children and beginners. When the ski-group is escorted by doctors who are able to provide advanced life support on the scene and are trained either in the field of emergency medicine or in travel medicine, a good possibility is given for the prevention of ski-accidents and for decreasing the number of travel related illnesses. This fact has led to the basic idea of training ski-camp doctors in Hungary. There is no similar initiative in the Hungarian literature. Therefore the article tries to summarise the medical knowledge and requirements of a ski-camp doctor, and analyses the prevention tasks of the doctor as well. The camp doctor must be well informed and highly trained in the field of emergency and travel medicine. The main tasks are: pre-travel advice, treatment of the common (travel-related) diseases, providing basic and advanced life-support on the scene, and to organise the hospitalisation and repatriation of patient, in cooperation with the hospital and insurance doctor. Moreover, the prevention should start before departure: the estimation of the physical and health condition of the skiers, a continuous care of the chronic people, and supervision of the place (hygienic circumstances, rescue forces available, the condition of the ski slopes, etc.) are vital--as for the primary prevention. The secondary level of the prevention is the treatment of the injured/sick persons, and assistance in the medical evacuation. During the training, not only postgraduate medical, mountain and alpine medicine lessons have been provided, but basic legal and insurance information as well. Moreover, the doctors received ski-course from professional ski-trainers in order to improve their ski-technique and skills on different slopes and off-piste places. In the future the local mountain rescue and air-rescue forces have to be involved in postgraduate training. Hopefully different travel-insurance companies and travel offices will use the trained doctors as a medical escort for ski- and school groups. The presence of a ski-camp doctor could minimise the risk of sport activity for chronic (diabetic, cardiac, etc.) patients, for the beginners and for the elderly. Besides the primary prevention, a secondary level of prevention can be ensured by ski-camp doctors as well.