Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences

MSc in Musculoskeletal Sciences

This is a part-time taught course running over two years at the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences (NDORMS), part of the Medical Sciences Division, University of Oxford.

The course runs every two years, and the next progamme will commence in January 2014.

The programme is intended to provide practising clinicians with academic training in the sciences underlying musculoskeletal diseases, and is designed to complement any post-graduate clinical teaching that students might be receiving in their specialist training programme. The course promotes an understanding of the ways in which research can be used to improve health care in musculoskeletal diseases. It will also provide a firm foundation for students wishing to progress to full-time doctoral research.

Attendance at the University is required on one day per month, in addition to three short residential sessions of 3-5 days throughout the two years.

Musculoskeletal Science is one of eight major research themes within the Medical Sciences Division. In 2009, the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedic Surgery expanded to include both Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences, creating NDORMS. The award of a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Unit (BRU) has enabled the department to expand its translational research interests, particularly in the field of Orthopaedics.

The Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre (NOC) and NDORMS are internationally renowned for the quality of their clinical and academic work. Both institutes work closely and have been responsible for training of national and international orthopaedic surgeons for the past 60 years. In 2002 the University opened the Botnar Research Centre (Institute of Musculoskeletal Sciences) that houses over 100 musculoskeletal researchers and as such was nominated as one of 15 National BRUs by the NIHR. The research of the Department will be strengthened considerably by the move of the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology from London to Oxford between 2011 and 2013.

The Institute of Musculoskeletal Sciences brings together scientists and clinicians who are investigating a wide-range of diseases of the musculoskeletal system, including common diseases such as osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, chondrocalcinosis and osteoporosis. Less common diseases are also studied, including vasculitis, the skeletal dysplasias and fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva. Current research activities span a full spectrum of scientific disciplines from fundamental basic science through to clinical research, with particular strengths in genetics, cell biology, molecular biology, epidemiology, immunology, pathophysiology of musculoskeletal disease, bone oncology, tissue engineering, stem cell biology, orthopaedic engineering, as well as clinical research and trials in rheumatology, osteoporosis and orthopaedics.

For further details about this course, please contact the MSc Co-ordinator, Charlotte Kerr, at: charlotte.kerr@ndorms.ox.ac.uk

MSc in Musculoskeletal Sciences — Class of 2012