Bone and Joint Decade World Summit and the Norwegian Musculoskeletal Research Network Conference 2015

With the theme “BREAKING DOWN THE BARRIERS – TOWARDS INTEGRATED CARE” the Norwegian Musculoskeletal Research Network (MUSS) and the Norwegian Council for Musculoskeletal Health (NCMH), our National Alliance (NAN) in Norway hosted our 2015 World Summit in Oslo.The programme took us on an interesting journey towards interprofessional care with models of integrated care at its core.

The focus was the importance of musculoskeletal health in the context of the challenges of today, most significantly an ageing population with increasing risk of multi-morbidity.

A feature was the launch the of WHO World Report on Health and Ageing presented by Manfred Huber from WHO Europe. The report predicts a doubling in the number of people over 60 years of age by 2050. Norwegian government representation came from Secretary General Bjørn-Inge Larsen and State Secretary Astrid Nøklebye Heiberg from the Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services. The overriding advice was to stay physically active and remain in work. The messages were clear: Keep people healthy, Keep people working. Retirement is boring!