“AreYOUFINE?” project offers free online course for the Assessment of Personal Injury Based on Biomechanical Analysis to Improve Sustainability and Efficacy of the Health Care System
EU Erasmus+ Call 2015 KA2 project “AreYouFine?” offers an innovative free online course in English, Spanish, Italian and Polish to “Assess Personal Injuries and Improve Sustainability and Efficacy of the Health Care System” by means of a method based on the biomechanical analysis. The Sant’Anna School LIDER Lab at the Institute Dirpolis (Law, Politics, Development) is among the partners of the “AreYouFine?” project funded by the Erasmus+ Programme - Call 2015 KA2 - Cooperation and Innovation for good practices. The main objective is to offer innovative e-learning courses focused on biomechanical analysis to improve personal injury assessment taking into account the different laws and boundary conditions in Europe.
The contents of the course have been based on identified needs of the end users (interdisciplinary skills on personal injury damages evaluation and on the issues related to the interplay between law, biomechanics, and legal medicine in personal injury damages compensation) and on the validation process carried out by external experts. During the final meeting in July 2017, the project partners examined the training content and generated a harmonized version at European level.
Bodily harm is defined as the result of a violent or natural event- accidents or pathological processes that can lead to multiple diseases. One of the most frequent complaints reported in health surveys in Europe is the musculoskeletal disorder. Musculoskeletal injuries are very common in industrialized countries: 50% of the European population reported musculoskeletal pain in one or more body points throughout the past year.
Work conditions contribute in a negative way in the intensity and evolution of these disorders. In some EU countries, more than 40% of social and sanitary awards for lost working days are due to these injuries. Another external agent that has a relevant role in the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders is traffic accidents. The whiplash is the most common injury in collisions. According to some Spanish statistics, the whiplash is present in over 80% of traffic accidents.
Many of these injuries present an unspecific origin or it is not possible to find an organic alteration that justifies them. Very often conventional diagnostic techniques do not show apparent injuries at organic level. The absence of objective tools to assist clinicians in the determination of the real bodily harm of patients, produces, in some cases, incorrect evaluations and inappropriate treatments, with a negative impact on the public health systems and patients.
There are many evidences in scientific literature about the applicability of biomechanics in the assessment of musculoskeletal injuries. Biomechanics is growing because offers a new approach to obtain quantitative, objective and homogeneous data to improve personal injury assessment procedures. It is based on knowledge of mechanics, engineering, anatomy and physiology to study the behaviour of human body, analysing body segments movements, joints restrictions and muscular strength. These methodologies allow professionals to understand the relationship between clinical outputs and physics so they can corroborate their clinical hypothesis.
Click here to learn more about “AreYouFine?” project and course registration.
