UCAM and AEPSAD have created a new alliance to train professionals in different fields of knowledge for the prevention of doping and the fight against it in sports. The first step was the creation of the course to become a University Expert in Doping Prevention. 

This degree, directed by the person in charge of the Chair of Sports Medicine of UCAM and president of the Spanish Society of Sports Medicine (SEMEDE - Sociedad Española de Medicina del Deporte), Pedro Manonelles, offers the training that is necessary in order to have a deep understanding of the meaning of doping, its legal consequences and the ones it has on the health of the athletes, the methods to fight against it and the strategies to prevent it.

The students of this course will have access to knowledge in order to understand the meaning, the definition and the history of doping, to know the specific anti-doping regulation, the ergogenic effects, the risks for health caused by such substances and the methods that are forbidden in sports and they will be able to carry out doping controls.

In response to the broad nature of doping, the profiles of the students suitable for this degree are many, including the students of the bachelor’s degrees related to health (Medicine, Nursing, Physical Therapy and Pharmacy), the ones from other degrees such as the ones in Physical Activity and Sports Sciences, Human Nutrition and Dietetics, Psychology, Law, Criminology, Journalism and Industrial Engineering and the students of Higher Level Vocational Training courses (Dietetics, Physical Conditioning, Analysis Laboratory and Quality Control, Industrial Engineering, Manufacture of Pharmaceutical, Biotechnological and similar products and Clinic and Biomedical Laboratory).

The course has a broad study plan, with face-to-face and online parts, taught by the persons in charge of the AEPSAD department.

According to the director of AEPSAD, José Luis Terreros, this course is “another initiative of the Spanish Agency that aims at promoting training and education in the field of the fight against doping, in accordance with the principles set out in the new World Anti-Doping Code of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)”.

“It is very important to train professionals able to understand the phenomenon of doping in depth, as a fundamental tool to prevent doping and to fight against it. In this sense, I would like to praise the educative offer of UCAM, which is framed within its strong commitment with sports and is an example of high-quality training”, highlighted Terreros in the meeting held at UCAM with Dr. Pedro Manonelles and the president of the institution, José Luis Mendoza.

For his part, Manonelles used the meeting to highlight the value of university training with regard to anti-doping, “a formula that manages to extend the knowledge regarding the fight against doping to the professionals of the future”. “Education and knowledge are the best ways towards prevention and awareness”, he said. 

Career opportunities

This degree has been designed to provide specific knowledge on the fight against doping to the professionals of anti-doping institutions, clubs, associations, sports federations and organisations, centres of Medicine of Sports, lawyers who work with athletes and pharmacists who work in contact with the public.  

This training is also useful for the researches who study topics related to doping, for manufacturers of nutritional products for athletes, university sports departments and companies with anti-doping programmes for their workers.

All the information on the course is available at https://www.ucam.edu/estudios/postgrados/experto-prevencion-del-dopaje