Bo Christer Bertilson

I am a MD and a licensed sports medical physician. As clinician I have made 100.000+ patient examinations and has served as team physician to the National Handball Association and the National Track and Field Association. In 2009 I earned a PhD by defending my thesis “On the assessment of nerve involvement and of dysfunction in patients with spinal pain”. 

I now serve as associate professor at Karolinska Institutet and research leader at the Medect Clinical Trials and Chair of the Pain Inflammation and Fatigue (PIAF) network. Our research focus is on diagnostic methods and treatment of non-specific pain and dysfunction including ME/CFS, Fibromyalgia, IBS and diagnoses that often develop after whiplash trauma. I serve on the research board for NRH Trauma Riks (National Neck, Spine and Head trauma organization) and other committees concerned with spinal injuries. Previously I have served as medical advisor to the Swedish Social Insurance Agency central office in Stockholm and on regional and national boards tasked with reports and guidelines on the care of patients with pain, for example "Nationellt uppdrag – Smärta”.

I presently supervise 3 medical PhD students, 2 of whom have passed 1/2-time review. I have supervised close to 100 medical student/resident scientific publications. I love teaching and have given a few thousand lectures/seminars/courses on subjects such as pain diagnostics, sports and orthopedic medicine and health promotion, injection technique, research planning, and scientific writing and presentation.

I am author of the book "Att diagnostisera kluriga fall" ("To Diagnose Tricky Cases"). To further diagnostic accuracy and effective care of patients with "non-specific pain and dysfunction" I have, in cooperation, with dedicated colleagues developed a digital application named Paint IT and Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms to assess patient made discomfort (pain) drawings. 

Some other data:

• Top 5% grade point average, Brigham Young Univ. United States (1975)
• Chairman, Stockholm Sports Medical Society (1992-1994)
• Swedish Family Medicine Research Award by Astra (2000)
• Expert Stockholm County Council work on medical programs for musculoskeletal functions, pain, lumbar pain and whiplash (2004-2006)
• “Spine physician of the year”, Swedish Spine Association (2005)
• Highest ranked research article in Spine on reliability of physical examination tests in assessment of patients with neck-shoulder problems
• Expert, National Board of Health and Welfare, Council for radiology of the spine and chronic pain (2012-2014)
• Mentor4research scholarship recipient at The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences for pain app innovation (2015-2016)
• Member, decision body, Stockholm Region Innovation Fund (2020-)

Current main scientific activity concerns non-specific pain and dysfunction such as head, neck- and back pain, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), Fibromyalgia (FM), irritable bowel system (IBS) and other often overlapping symptoms. Overall aim is to better understand pathophysiology and to develop more effective care of these health problems that constitute 30-40 % of diagnoses in primary care. Since 2018 I chair a network called PIAF, indicating “Pain Inflammation and Fatigue”. Within the network we have continuous discussions and a monthly online meet to which leading researchers and clinical experts from all the world are invited to share research.

At the Bragée clinics in Stockholm we have developed a unique database on 6000+ patients with ME/CFS, chronic pain and/or exertion syndrome. The database is, to our knowledge, the world’s largest database on patients with ME/CFS and the like. It contains clinical, radiological and laboratory data and 40+ validated questionaries filled out at different times during the assessment process of the patients referred to the clinic from all of Sweden. The database now contains millions of easily accessed datapoints. The cost for the work has been covered by Medect clinical trials. 

August 2020, we published an article in Frontiers Neurology on data from the first 200+ patients in our ME/CSF cohort. In the article we present a new hypothesis on a possible pathological pathway to ME/CFS and widespread pain and fatigue. The article quickly became one of the most viewed articles in Frontiers Neurology and now has 70.000+ views (https://loop-impact.frontiersin.org/impact/article/513006#totalviews/views). Our findings have resulted in research collaboration with universities in Linköping, Uppsala, Harvard and Stanford as well as with national and international patient organisations.

My teaching competence is primarily in pain, sports and orthopedic assessment, including assessment of clinical and radiological findings. Secondly in teaching scientific planning, writing and presentation. Current teaching includes lectures, seminars and supervision of medical and PhD students and residents in their research projects. 

Teaching is my favorite work. I believe it is the greatest calling, a privilege and an opportunity to improve and elevate mankind and society, or as Nelson Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”.

My teaching experience goes back to my time as a teenage scout leader, when“learning by doing” was the motto. Later, during medical school, I taught physics, biology, math etc to college students part-time. Since becoming an MD in the 1980s, I have spent thousands of hours teaching at KI and other institutions on subjects mentioned above. Also teaching on healthy living, drugs, non-violence and spiritual and ethical topics in community to groups of 10 to 1000 persons. Since dissertation in 2009 I have also spent 2000+ hours on scientific supervision of medical student projects.