Promovieren

Studierende haben bei uns die Möglichkeit im Fach Medizin (inkl. Dr. med. und Dr. rer. med./PhD) und im Fach Sportwissenschaft (Dr. phil.) zu promovieren. Im Rahmen beider Promotionsprogrammen können die Studenten an allen im Rahmen unseres „Doktorandenprogramms" angebotenen Veranstaltungen teilnehmen (unterstützt aus zentralen Mitteln der Universität des Saarlandes). Auch Diplomanden, Staatsexamenskandidaten, sowie Bachelor- und Master-Studenten haben zugang zu diesen Veranstalungen.

• Kolloquium für Doktoranden, Diplomanden und Staatsexamenskandidaten (mehrfach im Semester): Vorstellung aktueller Arbeiten und Ergebnisse

• Journal Club (6-8 Termine im Jahr): Vorstellung und Diskussion aktueller Publikationen aus den Arbeitsschwerpunkten der Saarbrücker Sportmedizin, Präsentationen in englischer Sprache

• Vorträge externer Wissenschaftler (im Wechsel deutsch- und englischsprachig; etwa 4 mal pro Jahr)

• Kolloquium "Sportkardiologie" (zweimal jährlich)

• Kolloquium "Sporttraumatologie" (einmal jährlich)

Doktoranden und Studierende, die Abschlussarbeiten in der Sportmedizin schreiben, erhalten die Möglichkeit zur praktischen Mitarbeit im Arbeitskreis (inkl. leistungsdiagnostischer Maßnahmen).

Die logistische Voraussetzung für eine qualitativ hochwertige Durchführung der eigenen Arbeiten (Ausstattung mit erforderlichen Materialien, eigener Arbeitsplatz) sind gewährleistet.

Comparative Analysis of Medical (and related) services for Football Teams in Different Countries

Benedict Gondwe, M.Sc. - South Africa

Medical and performance departments are integral components of multidisciplinary teams in football clubs, especially in the prevention and management of sport injuries. For example, the medical unit has a crucial responsibility in collaborating with the coach(es) and the support team to manage the health-related risks of competing athletes. It is essential for medical units to find the appropriate ethical and operational equilibrium between safeguarding health and enhancing performance. The optimisation of the structure of medical and performance support teams is strategically important for all clubs and sporting organisations around the world. However, there is limited information that details the operational practises and organisational structures adopted by medical departments in professional football in different countries.  Understanding typical professional practices is valuable to clubs, federations, practitioners, and researchers. The doctoral project aims to provide an extensive description, overview and comparison of the organisation, operations and internal processes of medical and performance teams supporting professional (men’s and women’s) football teams across the world. This project is funded and in cooperation with the German Football League.

Evaluation of cardiovascular screening in football

Mahnaz Davarnia, M.Sc. - Iran

Pre-participation medical screening has gained widespread acceptance as a means to identify athletes at risk of diseases such as cardiovascular diseases (CVD), which can lead to sudden cardiac death (SCD). The objectives of athlete screening include reducing injuries, minimizing disease complications, and preventing sudden death through lifestyle modifications, which may involve restrictions on participation in competitive sports. However, there is no universally adopted protocol for screening athletes. Despite the support of routine pre-participation screening by organizations like the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and the American Heart Association (AHA), there is significant disagreement regarding the components of screening protocols used.

Therefore, the doctoral project will focus on evaluating screening protocols specifically tailored for football players. It will examine the cost-effectiveness of these protocols and their outcomes across representative countries. Additionally, it will explore how different countries implement and adapt these protocols, considering factors such as healthcare systems and resource availability.

Digital support for return to play decisions in football

Guangze Zhang, M.Phil. - China

Injuries are common in professional football. Decisions surrounding the return to play (RTP) hold particular importance for stakeholders because of competitive and financial implications. Foreseeing potential outcomes can inform RTP decision-making, with the risk of subsequent injury influenced by a combination of physical, mental, and contextual factors. While data-driven approaches may not be feasible for football injury prediction due to data sparsity, imbalanced data, and incomplete information, other fields have demonstrated success by integrating human reasoning with deliberate simplification to achieve accurate predictions in complex situations with scarce precedents. Therefore, the doctoral project aims to propose a hybrid-intelligence approach to support RTP decision-making process in football. This project is funded and in cooperation with German Football Association and designed as a joint degree in cooperation with the University of Groningen.

Football in Heat

Edgar Schwarz, M.Sc. - Germany

In the 2014 world cup FIFA introduced the mid-game water break. Arguably because a Brazilian labour court decided, that when wet bulb globe temperature exceeds 32°C, this needs to be implemented. The question is what’s the evidence behind this threshold? In the years since, different thresholds and various heat indexes have been developed, all of which can be questioned (e.g.: Football Australia: Temperature > 31°C or WGBT > 26°C = cooling breaks, WGBT > 28°C = reschedule). Are there actually health risks for players when these thresholds are exceeded? Besides health, the performance of players could be impaired at even lower temperatures than these thresholds. These include physiological aspects like less total distance running and less high-speed running but might also include cognitive aspects like decision making or risk taking although research on this topic is scarce. Finally, an important question for the practical field is how these performance decrements could be countered. For example with effective and applicable cooling strategies. This project is funded and in cooperation with the German Footbal League and designed as a joint degree in cooperation with the University of Technology Sydney, Australia.

Sudden Cardiac Death in Football

Ana Ukaj, MD - Serbia

This PhD study aims to investigate the circumstances of sudden cardiac death in athletes as well as primary and secondary prevention measures. The first study addresses the circumstances of SCD in football players (continuation of the prospective world-wide FIFA-SD registry). The second study will be focused on the secondary prevention of sudden cardiac death in sport clubs by estimating the level of knowledge of (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) CPR skills, the presence and content of an emergency action plan and automated external defibrillator (AED) usage. The goal of the third study will be to compare resting ECGs of athletes of different sports with current guidelines regarding characteristic features of the athlete’s ECG. This is also compared with echocardiographic measurements of the athletes that participate in variety of sports in order to determine the correlation between resting ECG findings in different types of sport and echocardiographic features.

Position-specific Nutrition for Elite Football Players

Dolores Dravinec, M.Sc. - Croatia

In the World Cup tournaments, the greatest number of goals is scored by strikers (~54%), followed by midfielders (~33%) and defenders (~2%). However, the goal is rarely scored by an individual player and therefore a great physical and tactical role of all players is important for the team success. Detailed analysis of soccer matches shows differences in physical and tactical activity between playing positions. Literature shows the position-specific variability in the overall running distances, number of high-intensity runs and sprints during a typical game. Player’s individual position in the match is additionally strongly influenced by the team's specific strategy and tactical definition, but also by a player’s physical profile and fitness level. Demands of a football match require the high level of aerobic energy production and large anaerobic energy turnovers, which consequently results in high energy expenditure. Position-specific physiological demands may potentially result in position specific energy requirements, which could be in that case supported by specifically prescribed nutrition.

Therefore, the doctoral project will focus on investigating the relation of position specific physiological requirements and related energy expenditure in elite football. The main aim of the study is to investigate weather differences in physiological position specific requirements result in the need for position specific nutrition to support the optimal football performance. This project is conducted in cooperation with the German Football Association (DFB-Akademie) and the German Sport University Cologne (DSHS Köln).

Neuro-Athletic Training in Football

Cameron Scullard, M.A. - South Africa

Football can often be seen as one of the most physically demanding sports, not just in terms of the intensity and volume of movement, but also the quality of those movement patterns in which the body functions in order to enhance biomechanical performance and injury prevention.  The concept of neuro-athletic training involves the functioning of the neuronal processes, linked to the brain and nervous system, which control the effectiveness and efficiency of all motoric output in the form of bodily movement. Traditionally, football has had a distorted perception on the importance of neuronal sciences and its direct effect of optimizing physiological capacities and subsequent football-specific movements. The nature of football, with position-specific demands, incorporates the use of many sensory motor functions to allow for dynamic balance, reaction time, peripheral vision, rapid changes in speed and distance perception. The sensorimotor system utilizes the visual, vestibular and proprioceptive functions to guide player’s spatial awareness of the body, particularly in relation to the ball, other players and aerial duels.

Therefore, this doctoral project focuses on a scientific approach to investigating neuro-athletic training for the enhancement of physical performance and football-related injury surveillance and prevention. The main aim of the study is to investigate the effects of eye and balance sensorimotor-related exercises on neuronal and biomechanical deficits, as well as the performance diagnosis of football-specific movements. The project is conducted in collaboration with the  German Football Federation (DFB-Akademie) and Prof. Dr. Dr. Claus Reinsberger, neurologist and head of the Institute of Sports Medicine at University of Paderborn. 

Infectious diseases in football

Monica Duarte Munoz, Physician & M.Sc. - Mexico

Football players undergo transient modifications in immune function after training or a playing. To date, the clinical impact of said modifications has not yet been clearly established. However, they may signify impairment in immune function that might render football players prone to infectious diseases, which in turn cause a decrease in performance and, more importantly, time loss. Although most research has focused on injuries, infections are the second most important cause of time loss in football. Moreover, training or playing during an infectious episode can have catastrophic consequences (e.g. myocarditis, dilated cardiomyopathy).

Therefore, it is important to determine the magnitude of the alterations occurring in immune function in football players as well as their potential clinical repercussions. This doctoral project aims to identify the impact of football training and gameplay on the immune system and whether or not this can translate to an increase in the risk of infectious illnesses.

Muscle Injuries in Football

Ida Bo Steendahl, M.Sc. - Denmark

Within both professional and amateur football, muscle injuries continues to be a problem, with an unacceptably high rate of recurrent injuries. Within prevention research, there are a few different facets to consider. For muscle injuries, the main aspects focus on epidemiology, primary and secondary prevention. Epidemiology is an important factor, since the first step to achieve a prevention strategy, is to clearly define the problem. Primary prevention covers the actions taken to prevent muscle injuries in the first place, and secondary prevention regards the processes following an injury up until return to play and any further precautions taken to prevent re-injury. This doctoral project will therefore have a multifaceted approach incorporating all three aspects, while aiming to bridge the gap between the scientific literature and the applied settings of football. The project is conducted in cooperation with the German Football Federation (DFB-Akademie).