Come March and off we go to Oslo. For the third consecutive year, some members of the FICEBO took part in the Hemsedal meeting.
What is “The Hemsedal meeting”?
It is a meeting that has been hosted since 1993 in the Hemsedal ski resort, the second largest ski resort in Norway, which provides a breathtakingly beautiful setting for the event. The “father” of the meeting, prof. Jens Ivar Brox, a renown pioneer in shoulder RCTs, has been in charge of the meeting from the very beginning. It is an informal gathering of “Scandinavian shoulder research nerds” held in a rural mountain range – a scientifically inspiring atmosphere where the needs of the soul (and stomach) are catered for. Over the years, many world leaders in shoulder (musculoskeletal) research have paid tribute to the meeting and FICEBO researchers were invited for the first time in 2017. Since then, this has been the place to be for us – the FICEBO delegation has grown in size from the original three to the current group; Kari Kanto (one of the 3-time ‘veterans’), Teppo Järvinen (3x), Thomas Ibounig (3x), Tuomas Lähdeoja (2x), Mikko Salmela (rookie) and Lasse Rämö (rookie). Our research director Simo Taimela was also all set to go but had to cancel at the last minute.
This year the meeting was hosted on April 8-10. The program was filled with very interesting presentations on planned, ongoing and finished trials involving shoulder and upper limb conditions, as well as, cervical radiculopathy. For the first time, we Finns had some actual role in arranging the meeting, as the second day (April 9) was coined a special Finnish-Norwegian day. We heard amazing talks from Ville Mattila and Antti Launonen on their NITEP activities (distal radius and proximal humerus fractures), Ville Äärimaa and Hanna Bjørnsson-Hallgren on proximal humerus fractures, Lars Adolfsson on arthroplasty for distal humerus fractures, Tore Fjalestad on public involvement in trials, and Aasne Hoksrud on our joint-effort, the FINITE-collaboration on tennis elbow.
FICEBO members also had several presentations: Kari Kanto reported 5-year results and return-to-work analysis of the FIMPACT Trial. Tuomas Lähdeoja gave a talk on the BMJ Rapid Recommendation on subacromial pain syndrome and shared a presentation with Aasne Hoksrud from Norway on progress of FINITE Trial. Lasse Rämö presented – in a world premiere – the 1-year results of the FISH Trial and Thomas Ibounig gave a fascinating talk on the next steps of the FIMAGE Study. There was a lively discussion after each presentation and colleagues from other Nordic countries and UK shared their ideas on each other’s trials. The atmosphere was welcoming and warm as always is the case at the Hemsedal meeting.
We also cherish the possibility to update our ongoing international joint-projects with our collaborators. Hemsedal was the place where we started working with prof. Danielle Van der Windt, Chris Littlewood, Aasne Hoksrud, Martine Enger, Helene Skaara… Again, we really enjoyed the opportunity to catch up and move the projects forward – nothing beats a chance to engage in personal, face-to-face discussions!
The ‘RCTs on the shoulder’ –meeting remains the favourite meeting of the FICEBO study group and we hope to see everybody in Hemsedal next year. Thank you, Jens-Ivar! Your contribution to the Nordic musculoskeletal research is invaluable!