What is NITEP?
Conducting a good traumatological study is challenging. In addition to careful planning and implementation, there must be a sufficient number of suitable patients. In terms of patient volumes, none of the Nordic hospitals are large enough to conduct such a large project on their own within a reasonable time. In addition to cultural aspects, the Nordic countries are united by public health care and comprehensive health care registers. For this reason, Nordic cooperation allows for the possibility to carry out more extensive clinical trials.
In 2011, our NITEP research team launched an RCT study that compared surgery and the conservative treatment of the fracture of the upper part of the humerus. We have created a functioning Nordic cooperation network and research infrastructure. In the future, NITEP aims to study the treatment of the most common and economically significant fractures by means of a randomized, advanced research trial (RCT) series.

Latest activity
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Strong Presence of NITEP Research Group at FESSH 2025: Successes in Past and Future Clinical Trials
The annual meeting of the Federation of European Societies for Surgery of the Hand (FESSH) was held in late June in Helsinki, Finland—and it marked a significant milestone for the NITEP research group, which was prominently represented throughout the event. PhD student Teemu Hevonkorpi presented the results of the DRIFT trial, an international multicenter study…
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Physiotherapist-supervised exercises versus unsupervised home-based exercises after nonsurgically treated proximal humerus fracture – New RCT is out!
NITEP group conducted a multicenter randomized controlled trial (RCT) across Denmark, Finland, and Norway to assess the effectiveness of physiotherapist-supervised exercises versus unsupervised home-based exercises in older adults with nonsurgically treated displaced 2-part proximal humerus fractures (PHFs). The trial included 72 patients aged ≥60 years who were randomized into two groups: (1) supervised physiotherapy once…
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3-4 part proximal humerus randomized trial is now out!
This is a great day for the NITEP collaboration. Our proximal humerus fracture trial involving 3 and 4 part fractures is now finally published in the Plos Medicine. Our multicenter randomized trial revealed that surgical interventions, including locking plate fixation and hemiarthroplasty, offer no significant benefit over nonoperative treatment for displaced 3- and 4-part proximal…