Global Alliance for Musculoskeletal Health
The Global Alliance for Musculoskeletal Health is a network of national and international patient, professional and scientific organisations working to prevent and improve treatments for musculoskeletal conditions.
It is a multi-disciplinary, global organisation aiming to improve health policy and practice through its unified voice and global reach. It has a network of people and organisations promoting initiatives in all parts of the world.
Its home office is located within the Department of Rheumatology, Institute of Bone & Joint Research.
Our vision is a society where prevention, treatment and care for people with musculoskeletal disorders is of a high standard and consistently accessible, giving people the freedom to move without pain and independently.
Our objective is to raise awareness of the importance of musculoskeletal conditions at a global, regional and national level.
The Global Alliance for Musculoskeletal Health is calling for governments, health policy makers and the World Health Organisation to prioritise the prevention and treatment of musculoskeletal conditions and injuries. It would like to see the following issues addressed:
- Promotion of a lifestyle that will optimise musculoskeletal health at all ages
- Prevention of musculoskeletal disorders and injuries
- Identification and treatment for those at highest risk
- Accessible, timely, safe, appropriate treatment to control symptoms and prevent unnecessary disability
- Accessible and appropriate rehabilitation to reduce any disability, including self-management
- Equity for all sectors of society
- Support for people to be economically independent
- Research and education to advance knowledge and care
Professor Lyn March
G-MUSC Executive Committee
Professor Lyn March is the Liggins Professor of Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Epidemiology at the University of Sydney and the Institute of Bone and Joint Research and a senior staff specialist in Rheumatology at Royal North Shore Hospital.
Lyn has led the Musculoskeletal Expert Group for the Global Burden of Diseases study that highlighted MSK disorders as one the world’s leading causes of disability. She now Chairs the Bone and Joint Decade Surveillance Task Force.
Dr Marita Cross
Operations Manager
Dr Damian Hoy
Co-leader Global Musculoskeletal Surveillance Taskforce
Global Alliance for Musculoskeletal Health
The Global Alliance for Musculoskeletal Health Executive:
Prof Anthony Woolf
Honorary Professor of Rheumatology, University of Exeter Medical School, UK
Prof Deborah Kopansky-Giles
Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College
Prof Karsten Dreinhofer
Department of Orthopaedics and Trauma Surgery, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany
Research to support global health system strengthening for musculoskeletal health
The Global Alliance for Musculoskeletal Health works in partnership with an international project team to improve population-level musculoskeletal health. Musculoskeletal health includes musculoskeletal conditions, musculoskeletal pain and musculoskeletal injury and trauma.
An in-depth qualitative study has been completed with international informants from 20 countries to understand the priorities and opportunities for health system strengthening in musculoskeletal health. Concurrently, a scoping review continues to provide a contemporary snapshot of current international policy trends, directions and priorities. These two components of work have informed an international Delphi study.
The project team includes Professor Andrew Briggs (project lead, Curtin University); Professor Lyn March, Dr Carmen Huckel Schneider, Swatee Mishrra, Sarika Parambath from University of Sydney; Professor Helen Slater, Curtin University; Professor Deborah Kopansky-Giles and Dr James Young, Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College; and Asst Professor Saurab Sharma, Kathmandu University.
The project was awarded grant funding from the Bone and Joint Decade Foundation.
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