BJDOnline

We are extremely proud to announce that the Department of Orthopaedics at Lund University has been designated as a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Evidence-Based Health Care in Musculoskeletal Disorders.

Prof Lars Lidgren, Chairman of the Bone & Joint Decade will preside as Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre, along with Prof Kristina Åkesson, Bone & Joint Decade ISC member.

This boost for musculoskeletal science follows on from the WHO’s recognition of the Bone and Joint Decade and the vast burden of musculoskeletal disease as the leading global cause of morbidity and disability, and giving rise to enormous health care expenditure and loss of work productivity. In 2003, in conjunction with the BJD, the WHO had published The Burden of Musculoskeletal Disease at the Start of the New Millennium (http://whqlibdoc.who.int/trs/WHO_TRS_919.pdf ) which is part of the ongoing WHO Global Burden of Disease 2000 study.

Now, as a WHO Collaborating Centre, the Department of Orthopaedics in Lund together with the international network will focus on identifying barriers and facilitators to the successful implementation of musculoskeletal health strategies; identifying the costs associated with musculoskeletal disorders and developing models for cost effectiveness; and continuing ongoing activities relating to aetiology, prevention and treatment of musculoskeletal disorders.

WHO Collaborating Centres are institutions such as research institutes or parts of universities, which are designated by the WHO Director-General to carry out activities which support the WHO’s various global health programmes. The WHO believes that research in the field of health is best advanced by assisting, coordinating and making use of the activities of existing institutions, rather than founding new research bodies.

To read about the Collaborating Centre for Evidence-Based Health Care in Musculoskeletal Disorders in Lund, please go to http://www.who.int/whocc/Detail.aspx?cc_ref=SWE-60&cc_city=lund&cc_code=swe&