TY - JOUR T1 - What Matters: The Lived Experience with Musculoskeletal Health Conditions JF - The Journal of Rheumatology JO - J Rheumatol SP - 1789 LP - 1791 DO - 10.3899/jrheum.100684 VL - 37 IS - 9 AU - GEROLD STUCKI Y1 - 2010/09/01 UR - http://www.jrheum.org/content/37/9/1789.abstract N2 - “Non enim vivere bonum est sed bene vivere” [What is good is not just living, but living well...] — Seneca, Epistulae MoralesToday, living and living well are the 2 main health-related social goals. Social progress and modern medicine have made it possible for more and more people in developed societies to enjoy a lifespan approaching the biological limit of human nature. The true challenge, then, is how people can live well over the whole lifespan, especially when experiencing health impairments.Rheumatology is a case in point with respect to the success of modern medicine to achieve this. With the development of biological treatments and the evolution of the evaluation sciences and clinical quality management, patients with adverse musculoskeletal health conditions now have a better chance than ever to live a full life comparable to people without any health problems.The continuous development of even better interventions and the systematic evaluation of their benefits and harms rely on a shared and valid conceptualization of health. Unfortunately, Jadad and O’Grady have pessimistically concluded in a recent British Medical Journal editorial that “to define health is futile”1. We believe the main reason for this is that the philosophical conceptualization of health from a purely biological perspective does not provide an adequate definition of health2. Ultimately, the lack of a universally agreed on and practical conceptualization of health has contributed to a Tower of Babel in the world of outcome measurement.Fortunately, there is a solution on the horizon. The key is to forego the futile claim to a universally agreed-on definition of health and instead focus on a universally agreed-on operationalization … Address correspondence to Prof. Stucki; E-mail: Gerold.stucki{at}paranet.ch ER -