PhD student Michael Skovdal Rathleff works with children and adolescents who experience knee pain. He recently received a little more than DKK two million for his research from the Danish Council for Independent Research.

2014.03.11 | Anders Corydon Frederiksen

Grant recipient Michael Skovdal Rathleff from Aarhus University, Department of Clinical Medicine.

Michael Skovdal Rathleff’s area of research is children and adolescents with knee pain. The Danish Council for Independent Research has chosen to support his research financially with a grant of DKK 2,040,816. The grant will go to further research into knee pain.

“The grant from the Danish Council for Independent Research makes it possible for me and my research group to continue our research into children and adolescents with knee pain. Specifically, this means that we now have the chance to answer many of the questions that the research from my PhD project has turned up,” says Michael Skovdal Rathleff.

The questions include e.g. the number of adolescents with knee pain, how many of these develop chronic pain, and also the best type of treatment for them.

“Our research shows that approximately 30 percent of adolescents between 12 and 19 suffer from knee pain and that around half of them continue to have knee pain after two years. Knee pain appears to be a more serious problem than general practitioners and physiotherapists have previously assumed. The question is, however, why so many adolescents continue to experience knee pain and what we should do for them,” says Michael Skovdal Rathleff.

Good prospects for children and adolescents with knee conditions

Together with his research team, Michael Skovdal Rathleff will try to improve the diagnostics for children and adolescents with knee pain. This will be done with help from new imaging and pain diagnostic methods. At the same time, this paves the way for a study of the effect of a new treatment, where the patient cuts down on activities that place strain on the knees.

Michael Skovdal Rathleff’s research project will all-in-all help provide better diagnosis as well as better treatment of children and adolescents with knee pain.

Together with 24 other researchers, including three from Aarhus University, Michael Skovdal Rathleff was presented with the grant on 13 February, 2014. The coming research will be carried out at Aalborg University.

Read about all four Health researchers in the article ”Aarhus researchers receive grants from the Danish Council for Independent Research”.

Michael Skovdal Rathleff was born on 25 May, 1983 in Grindsted, Denmark.

Further information

Physiotherapist, PhD student Michael Skovdal Rathleff
Aarhus University, Department of Clinical Medicine
Direct tel: +45 9932 1111
msr@sundhed.au.dk