On Wednesday, the Nordic Council Welfare Committee approved the Icelandic delegation’s proposal for co-ordinated information on spinal cord injuries in the Nordic region.

The proposal recommends the appointment of a committee of scientists and physicians to collect information and prepare an overview of Nordic and other research and treatment of spinal cord injury, in the form a report, and to prepare proposals for improvements in the research and treatment of spinal cord injuries.

Approval was also given to a proposal to investigate the extent to which people with spinal cord injuries are active in the employment market and to embark on the creation of a Nordic quality file on spinal cord injuries.

Approximately 1000 Nordic citizens suffer spinal cord injuries every year. Progress in the treatment of spinal cord injuries has been much slower in recent decades than in other fields of medicine, such as in cancer, cardiovascular and ophthalmological treatment.

As a result of the Welfare Committee’s approval, the proposal will now be submitted for discussion at the annual Session of the Nordic Council in Copenhagen in November.

The Nordic Council was formed in 1952. The Council has 87 elected members from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden as well as from the three autonomous territories: the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland.

Contact: audur@isci.is

Further Information: www.isci.is