Grand Challenges

Large diverse datasets ("Big data") will dramatically improve our understanding of the massive global problem of spinal pain, disability, treatment methods, and recovery pattern. The unique SPINA rehabilitation registry stands to provide the most comprehensive, diverse, and inclusive data on spinal pain yet. This data-driven biopsychosocial approach will reveal how spine disorders impact health, mobility, and quality of life. Ultimately, the goal is to use these insights to inform prevention and treatment strategies that enhance patient outcomes and promote overall spinal health globally.

A team of interdisciplinary experts will investigate the root causes of adverse clinical outcomes related to implant materials, which can degrade through corrosion and negatively impact patient health.

When a patient gets a knee, hip, shoulder or dental implant, it should improve their quality of life. This Grand Challenge brings together an interdisciplinary team of surgeons, dentists, scientists, and engineers, to ensure that implants have the best possible clinical outcomes for patients. Every failed implant is thoroughly investigated to avoid similar failures in the future, and to maximize the function and longevity of implants. Patient groups with a high risk of implant failure are identified to improve their treatment outcomes.

A new BJI research team aims to enhance safe mobility by understanding and optimizing situational awareness, commonly used in high-risk occupations, in everyday life.

Situational awareness is the ability to notice what’s happening around you, understand it, and respond in a way that keeps you safe while completing a task. It’s a concept that’s well-known in high-risk fields like firefighting or the military but hasn’t been widely seen as a core health competency. Our framework emphasizes multisensory detection, clear communication, risk assessment, and the safe execution of movement during everyday activities, which change over time and across different contexts. This research program is the first to prioritize assessing and promoting situational awareness as a key strategy for preventing MSK injuries throughout the lifespan.

An international, interdisciplinary team of experts aims to tackle back pain by developing a novel biomaterials platform to deliver regenerative "designer" stem cells to intervertebral discs.

We are developing a new biomaterials platform to deliver stem cells to the intervertebral disc as a new therapy to restore function. This Grand Challenge research will lay the foundation for advancing a novel regenerative medicine approach aimed at improving the health and quality of life for individuals suffering from disc degeneration and back pain.