Abstract
Among the many ‘revolutions’ in contemporary medicine and science, the idea behind Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) is possibly the most remarkable one. People should receive only those interventions that work (i.e. those that are most likely to do more good than harm) and physicians should try to adopt those behaviours that are most consistent with the best available scientific information.
The burden of musculoskeletal conditions is growing in most developed and third world countries. The importance of the problems we study has been recognized by the United Nations by declaring the decade 2000–2010 the ‘Bone and Joint Decade’.
Despite the many great achievements in the last century, clinical research in the field of muscoloskeletal disorders has not always been flawless: this has been already pointed out by many methodologists in the past decades, even before the outburst of systematic reviews. However, and not surprisingly, the mission statement of the Decade could have been taken from an EBM textbook: This symposium will present different aspects of EBM applied to musculoskeletal disorders. Hopefully it will serve as a source of knowledge but, even more, as a source of inspiration to continuous research in the field and, most of all, as an invitation to join the rapidly growing EBM movement.
After a first international meeting in Ferrara in April 2001 ( e_Musk1) we are setting up an e_Musk Coordinating Centre at the University of Teesside in Middles-brough, UK. It is becoming a forum for like minded people to network and interact, whose long-term goal are patient-centeredness and bringing down the professional barriers. We are organizing a 2nd e_Musk meeting for June 18th–19th 2003.
Theses abstracts were prepared by Professor Dr. Frantz Langlais. Correspondence should be addressed to him at EFORT Central Office, Freihofstrasse 22, CH-8700 Küsnacht, Switzerland.
