Selected topic: Sports medicine
Torino 2006 Winter Olympic Games: Highlight on Health Services Organization

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Abstract

Background: Mass gatherings require attention toward planning and execution of dedicated medical care. Objectives: The aims were to describe the organization and provision of medical care in the Torino 2006 Winter Olympic Games in light of the epidemiology of illnesses and injuries among athletes during this event. Methods: The organization integrated 18 medical centers operating at Olympic venues, three polyclinics inside the Olympic Villages, and 13 pre-existing Olympic Hospitals. The design was a retrospective study, with review of medical records at Olympic medical facilities. All the athletes who attended any medical center or polyclinic were eligible. The main outcomes included type of injuries and illnesses affecting athletes, incidence of injuries and illnesses by provenance and discipline, and rate of hospital admissions. Results: A total of 330 athletes received medical care and 676 medical encounter forms were documented, with an overall medical utilization rate of 12.66%. Skeleton, snowboard, bobsleigh, and alpine and freestyle skiing had the highest medical attendance rate relative to other disciplines (p < 0.001). The majority of injuries and illnesses were of a minor nature. A total of 23 visits required hospital admissions (3.40%). Conclusion: The described model of medical coverage for such events seemed to be practical and efficient for the athletes, without depleting services to the general population. The risk of severe injury and illness seemed to be low. These data could be useful for planning medical services in future mass gatherings.

Introduction

Mass gatherings, defined as more than 1000 people attending an organized event at a specific location for a specific period of time, are becoming an increasingly common feature of society and represent an important challenge for public health and health care systems for several reasons (1, 2, 3). Millions of people attend mass gathering events every year and, even if these events tend to be collections of “well persons,” they show an incidence of illness and injury higher than would be expected for a non-unrefined population of similar size (4, 5, 6). Moreover, the spectrum of required medical care at such events is variable and unpredictable (7).

A specific discipline called “mass gatherings medicine” was born to plan and provide emergency medical care for these types of events, and the term “special event medical care” has been used for indicating “the provision of preventive measures, or definitive, primary care, or hospital referral to persons attending or participating in major sports, recreational or political events” (7, 8, 9, 10).

High profile events, such as the Olympic Games, require a particular attention toward the planning and execution of the dedicated medical care. As experience in past Olympics has clearly shown, issues of medical care need to be addressed mainly to provide quality care to athletes, spectators, and visitors without depleting services to the general population (7, 11, 12, 13).

A description of illnesses and injuries and the medical care organization at Olympic events could provide useful information for the planning of medical care at similar events in the future. At present, only two articles referring to the 1988 and 2002 Winter Olympic Games focused on the rates of illness and injury in these events, along with a description of the medical care organization provided (12, 14).

This article focuses on the venues at the Torino 2006 Winter Olympic Games. This study described the organization and provision of medical care in the Olympic venues in light of the epidemiology of illnesses and injuries among athletes during the event.

Section snippets

Materials and Methods

Torino is the main town of the Piedmont Region, located in the northwestern part of Italy, bordering Switzerland and France, with more than 4.3 million inhabitants.

The Torino Organizing Committee (TOROC) for the 2006 Winter Olympic Games created a specific medical organization (TOROC's Medical Service) in December 1999.

Directed by a Chief Medical Officer, the TOROC's Medical Service provided basic and emergency medical care to the Olympic Family (athletes, team officials, referees, judges,

Results

During the 34 Olympic operational days, a total of 2607 athletes participated in the competitions. A total of 330 athletes presented to the medical centers and the polyclinics. The overall medical utilization rate (MUR) was 12.66 per 100 athletes.

Among the athletes participating in the Games, the majority were males (61.79%). Regarding the provenance, 1780 athletes came from Europe (68.28%), whereas only 9 came from Africa (0.34%). Among the athletes participating, most were hockey players,

Discussion

The goal of this article was to describe the organization and provision of medical care at the Torino 2006 Winter Olympic Games in light of the epidemiology of illnesses and injuries among athletes during this event.

At the previous Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, the overall health organization for both the Olympic Family and the spectators was created ad hoc (14). On the contrary, in our event, organizational integration between pre-existing and new structures was pursued. This system,

Conclusion

In summary, despite past experiences in similar events, in the Torino 2006 Olympic Games, a new organization with adequate staff and the support of an external pre-existing structure was able to provide efficient and complete care. Such organization could be recommended for future events, but only in contests where a pre-existing public system could partially undertake the patients' needs.

The medical service data from the 2006 Olympics may provide valuable information for planning upcoming mass

Acknowledgment

We thank Massimo Favilla for helping in carrying out the research.

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