Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine in Oulu Group (PRIMO)

Research group information

Contact information

Research group leader

  • Professor
    Jaro Karppinen

Research group description

According to WHO, musculoskeletal disorders (MSD), such as low back pain, neck pain and arthritis, are among the most common disability-related health conditions reported worldwide. In addition to individual suffering, MSD can result in a huge burden to society in the form of production losses due to sick leaves and disability pensions.

The focus of PRIMO is the etiology, prevention and treatment of MSD. It investigates the role of environmental and genetic determinants in MSD in large international collaborative consortiums. The treatment interventions focus on the implementation of evidence-based clinical practice in Finnish primary health care.

The research group is a member of the OASIS research consortium (Oulu Arthritis consortium – Synergy Is Solution)

Our team

Where are we headed

The research group (PRIMO) will continue international collaboration. Large consortiums are currently formed in the field of MSD. Our focus areas will be biomarkers, especially artificial intelligence-based imaging markers, and epigenetics of MSD. We will also extend the implementation of evidence-based clinical practice into Finnish primary health care in individualized biopsychosocial contexts. Finally, we will exploit and develop novel mobile sensing and crowdsourcing solutions for modelling how MSD manifest in different contexts and to investigate new potential treatment avenues.

Our main collaborators

  • Departments of Orthopedics and Traumatology & Biochemistry, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China
  • Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology, King’s College London, London, UK
  • Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, USA
  • School of Physiotherapy and Exercise Science, Curtin University, Perth, West Australia
  • Department of Health Professions, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
  • Center for Health and Medical Psychology, Department of Law, Psychology and Social Work, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden
  • National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland
  • Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Finland
  • Center of Experimental Rheumatology, University of Zurich, Balgrist Campus, Switzerland
  • Department of Information and Communication Technologies, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain
  • Department of Orthopedic Surgery, International Spine Research and Innovation Initiative, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, USA

How to find us

jaro.karppinen[at]oulu.fi