The theme of this year’s Summit, which will take place on 3 April, will be Medicine in Motor Sport. As a recently awarded FIA Institute Centre of Excellence the Bahrain International Circuit will play host to this prestigious event. The circuit will also host the FIA Chief Medical Officers’ seminar on 2 April.

The focus for the Summit will be medical advancements in Formula One and other motor sports and will feature a selection of speakers from medically acclaimed institutions worldwide. The summit will simultaneously use medical excellence in motor sport to set a benchmark for medical excellence in other sports, as well as across the Gulf region.

The event will be chaired by FIA Institute Deputy President Professor Gerard Saillant, who will lead the discussions, with more than 150 senior medical professionals from around the world among the delegation.

He said: “This year’s summit will group together doctors interested in all sorts of medical areas such as traumatology, physiology and so on. With the FIA Chief Medical Officers’ seminar taking place the day before, these two days will be an extraordinary source of exchange and will give a chance to the participants to share their experience and their knowledge.”

The Conference will open with a welcome address from FIA Institute president Professor Sid Watkins, followed by the Keynote Address from Bahrain’s Minster of Health, His Excellency Dr Faisal Yacob Al Hamar. The Ministry of Health has been integral to not only the organisation of the Summit but also to medical safety during the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix.

The programme also welcomes a number of other high-level speakers from the world of motor sport medicine. Steve Olvey MD, who will give a presentation on the use of ImPACT in professional motor sport, is an associate professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Miami and a founding Fellow of the FIA Institute. He is also a member of the American College of Sports Medicine Motorsports Safety Task Force and a medical consultant to the Indianapolis 500 race.

Dr Michael Henderson, who will speak about Trauma reduction in Motor Sport, is Chairman of the Australian Institute of Motor Sport Medicine. He has spent his entire professional life in aviation, road and race safety research and administration. He is a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine and the Australian College of Road Safety, and is a member of several international safety associations including the Society of Automotive Engineers.

Other presentations include: the management of noise exposure in motor sport, by senior clinical audiologist Robert Shepheard; dehydration and loss of performance by Professor Jean-Charles Piette, the new FIA Formula One Medical Delegate; and Jet lag and optimization of performances by Jacques Tropenat, FIA Deputy Director of Medical Affairs.

The event follows the success of the inaugural FIA Institute Safety Summit, which took place at the Paul Ricard High Tech Test Track and welcomed a number of high-level representatives from the world of sport participating in the event.

The two-day event, which focused on the theme of Risk Management in Sport, featured keynote speeches from FIA President Max Mosley and Roland Blanchet, the Directeur de Cabinet for Jean-François Lamour, the French Minister for Sport.

Delegates from the world of motor sport included representatives of the Grand Prix Drivers Association (GPDA), senior representatives of racing and rally teams, manufacturers, promoters, circuit administrators and officials, medical practitioners and motor sport safety equipment manufacturers. They were joined by representatives from Football, Rugby, Skiing, Cycling, American Football and Boxing. The objective was to identify a common strategy for reducing the risks and maximising the benefits of sport through the development of a programme of best practice.

For more information please visit www.fiainstitute.com/summit