Claus Manniche

Claus Manniche (born 21 June 1956) is a Danish physician, rheumatologist, and researcher specialising in musculoskeletal medicine, back pain, and vertebral endplate pathology. He holds the degrees of MD, Dr.Med. (doctorate in medicine), and Cand.Jur. (law). He is a Visiting Researcher and Guest Professor at the Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Odense University Hospital / University of Southern Denmark (OUH/SDU). He has an h-index of 58 and has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed journal articles.

Early life and education Claus Manniche was born in Kalundborg, Denmark. He studied medicine at the University of Copenhagen, graduating in 1982 and obtaining his medical licence in 1985. He subsequently earned a law degree (Cand.Jur.) in 1988. He specialised in rheumatology, obtaining specialist qualification in 1994.

Career In 1998, Manniche was appointed Professor and Director of the Spine Center of Southern Denmark, a position he held for more than a decade. He has been involved in influential professional bodies including the Danish Rheumatology Society and the Copenhagen Back Research Association, and was appointed by the Danish Minister of Health to a specialist committee on the prevention of back problems.

Since retiring from his directorship, Manniche has continued active research as Visiting Researcher and Guest Professor at OUH/SDU, focusing on Modic changes, translational spine research, and evidence-based methodology in musculoskeletal medicine.He is a co-founder of Persica Pharmaceuticals Ltd, a UK-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing intradiscal antibiotic therapy (PP353, linezolid) for a subgroup of chronic low back pain patients with Modic type 1 changes and suspected disc infection.

Research contributions Exercise therapy for chronic low back pain

In 1988, Manniche and colleagues published one of the first randomised controlled trials demonstrating the efficacy of intensive exercise therapy for nonspecific chronic low back pain, in The Lancet. This paper was influential in establishing active rehabilitation as standard treatment worldwide.

Low Back Pain Rating Scale

Manniche developed a validated patient-reported outcome instrument for the assessment of low back pain, which continues to be used in clinical research internationally.

Modic changes

Manniche has been a central contributor to research on Modic changes — MRI-visible vertebral endplate signal changes associated with disc degeneration and, in a subgroup of patients, with disc infection. He was co-author of the landmark 2013 randomised controlled trial (Albert, Sørensen, Christensen amp; Manniche, European Spine Journal 2013) demonstrating that antibiotic treatment may be effective in patients with Modic type 1 changes after lumbar disc herniation.

He was subsequently co-author of the landmark randomised controlled trial (Albert, Sørensen, Christensen & Manniche, European Spine Journal 2013) demonstrating that antibiotic treatment may be effective in patients with Modic type 1 changes after lumbar disc herniation.

Books

Manniche has authored and co-authored several books on back pain and rheumatology, including Rygsmerter og Modic (Danish), published in English (Back Pain and Modic), Spanish (Dolores de Espalda y Modic), German (Rückenschmerzen und Modic), French (Dorsalgie et Discophatie de Type Modic), and Chinese editions.

Awards and recognition

Scandinavian Journal of Rheumatology's 40th Nordic Anniversary Prize (1995) Quality Award, outpatient back clinic, Aarhus County Hospital (1996) Danish Chiropractors'; Association honorary award, Back Center at Fyn (2008)