15th International Forum on Back and Neck Pain Research in Primary Care – Conference

The Norwegian local organising committee is delighted to invite you to Oslo, Norway for our 15th International Forum on Back and Neck Pain Research in Primary Care. The conference will be held from the evening of Tuesday 12th to Friday 15th September, 2017.
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The conference will be held in Gamle Logen, or the old Freemasons Lodge, which was built for the freemasons in 1836 in Christiania, present Oslo. It is located centrally in Oslo within walking distance to many tourist attractions in Oslo. The Gamle Logen is an interesting building in itself as it has been the centre stage for many historical and cultural events in the city of Oslo and Christiana. It was officially opened as a concert hall in 1844 with the great Norwegian violinist Ole Bull, it was Edvard Griegs concert hall and Johann Svendsen wrote several of his most famous orchestral pieces for the artists carnival in Gamle Logen (notably Svendsvens FestPolonaise). This is also the place where Ole Bull discovered the famous Norwegian writers Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and Henrik Ibsen.
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September is usually a beautiful time of year in Norway with beautiful, warm colours. It is also characterized by shorter days. Of course, it might rain, but hopefully the weather will offer the normal variation so you can experience the clear, fresh autumn air and the beautiful afternoon light due to the rapidly shortening days. Autumn is a great time for walking tours/hiking in the mountains, so don’t miss the opportunity to experience another type of Norway before or after the conference. You can read more about possible pre- and post-conference tours from the menu above.
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You can also visit the websites of Visit Norway
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The Forum on Back and Neck Pain Research was first held in Seattle, USA in 1995 by the initiative of Dan Cherkin, Jeffrey Borkan, Timothy Carey, Richard Deyo and Bart Koes and has since its starting point been able to gather active and respected researchers in the back pain field such as Alf Nachemson, Gordon Waddell, Peter Croft. Since then it has been arranged every 18 months at different locations around the world. This conference has managed to gather researchers from countries all over the world with a strong and committed interest for research on spinal pain in primary as well as in secondary care. Since the Forum in Brazil in 2014 an early career research group was established in order to facilitate the participation of younger researchers at our conference. This turned out to be very successful in the past Forum in Buxton, UK in 2016, and we hope to continue this development in Oslo. We also encourage experienced researchers in spinal pain as well as researchers from other musculoskeletal pain fields to join us and contribute to thinking aloud about our current and future challenges in Back and Neck Pain Research.

The local organizing committee from Oslo, Norway looks forward to hosting the next International Forum on Back and Neck Pain Research in Primary Care. We hope that many will come and join us, and wish you all a warm welcome to Oslo in September 2017.