Jan Hartvigsen in WHO expert group on chronic back pain

Future advice to the world’s governments on treatment of chronic back pain could well originate partly from Danish knowledge about back pain.

Professor (University of Southern Denmark) and Senior Researcher (Chiropractic Knowledge Hub) Jan Hartvigsen has been appointed to an expert group of the world’s best researchers under the World Health Organisation, the WHO Back Pain Guideline Development Group, who have been tasked with advising governments all over the world on the treatment of chronic back pain. The researchers will examine the latest knowledge and draw up official guidelines for treatment for governments across the world.

A large task lies ahead of the expert group. In Denmark alone, back pain is the most frequent reason for people seeing a doctor, a chiropractor or a physiotherapist. At world level, back pain affects more than 600 million people every day and causes poverty and social inequality.

The WHO Back Pain Guideline Group consists of 25 researchers from across the world with Jan Hartvigsen as Denmark’s sole representative. The other participants are from Germany, Israel, USA, Peru, Australia, Nigeria, Malaysia, India, Benin, Belgium, South Korea, South Africa, Egypt, Canada, Switzerland, France, Pakistan, China and the UK.

The great geographical spread originates from a wish to create guidelines based on universal scientific documentation and understanding of local experience and tradition in the individual countries, in order to make it possible to use them worldwide.

Read the full press release (in Danish) here: https://via.ritzau.dk/pressemeddelelse/fremtraedende-sdu-forsker-skal-skabe-verdensomspaendende-retningslinjer-for-behandling-af-rygsmerter?publisherId=12056383&releaseId=13622934