Editorial: The Canadian Regenerative Medicine and Nanomedicine Enterprise (CARMENE) ||FREE PAPER||

Hicham Fenniri

National Institute for Nanotechnology and Department of Chemistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

A framework for nanomedicine in Canada

In October of 2002, the Honorable Anne McLellan, Minister of Health endorsed the Bone and Joint Decade (2000–2010) on behalf of the Government of Canada, thus joining 45 countries, the World Health Organization (WHO), and more than 750 organizations and associations around the world. The goal of this global effort is to raise awareness and take action on bone and joint disease and injury, improve the quality of life for people with musculoskeletal disorders and injury throughout the world, empower patients to participate in their own care, promote cost-effective prevention and treatment, and advance understanding of musculoskeletal disorders through research to improve prevention and treatment. These include joint disease, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, low back pain, spinal disorders, severe trauma to the extremities, and crippling disease and deformities in children. As our population ages, the prevalence of many chronic bone and joint diseases and conditions will continue to increase consuming a far greater proportion of Canada’s health care resources. Chronic pain, loss of mobility and function, and loss of independence are common outcomes of a host of musculoskeletal and connective tissue conditions from osteoarthritis, systemic rheumatic diseases, osteoporosis and metabolic bone disorders to periodontal disease, fractures, and soft tissue injuries. The WHO estimates that several hundred million people already suffer from bone and joint disease and injuries around the world.