How important is sport and exercise medicine to the accident and emergency specialist? A study in the UK and Ireland.

S port and exercise related injury is responsible for about 5% of the overall workload in the accident and emergency (A&E) department, and A&E specialists agree that they should have a broad knowledge and understanding of sports medicine issues. Yet, training in sports medicine is not a compulsory part of the curriculum for ‘‘Higher Specialist Training’’. We carried out a pilot study in Northern Ireland that showed there was considerable interest in sport and exercise medicine, but we wondered if this simply reflected local interest in the topic. The aim of this study was to determine the views of a large representative sample of experts throughout the UK and Ireland.