2004

With his board certified subspecialty in sports medicine, Dr. Dr. Homayun Gharavi leaves his formal training in trauma- and orthopaedic surgery in late 2003, to found DAASM, being the initials of Deutsche Akademie für Angewandte Sportmedizin (German Academy of Applied Sports Medicine). From 2004 – 2008, DAASM’s core business was to provide a full service education program to physicians, who wanted to acquire their subspecialty in sports medicine according to the regulations of the german medical boards.

Gharavi based his standard of excellence in teaching and training german physicians on his 6-year professional experience in the US american collegiate sports – as a student athletic trainer – and academics (as a visiting professor in three colleges in Davis, Berkeley and Los Angeles). This was between 1997 – 2001. DAASM’s standard of athletic care has always been requiring competencies beyond those of a physician. To be able to truly serve the athlete, a physician must know how to treat, how to train and how to teach an athlete. Physicians going through his program had also to acquire coaching skills to pass the curriculum.

“Regardless of the medical background, a physician must also be able to conduct a flawless warm-up program for injured and uninjured players. Otherwise, there is no sports in sports medicine.”, Dr. Gharavi claims. “Providing sports medical care means being of help to athlete and coach through all stages.”

To maintain these skills, granted by the DAASM certificate, DAASM graduates have to prove a continuous coverage of practice and games of a local sports club. Coverage also requires 2 – 3 talks annually in front of the local community on health related topics.