•Up to 80% of people will suffer from back pain during their lives, while 50% of the working population will experience incapacitating back pain at least once a year.

•Back pain is one of the most common reasons for workplace sick-leave, and back pain is the second most frequent reason for visits to the doctor’s office, outnumbered only by the ‘common cold’.

•Approximately 200,000 people in the US live with a disability related to spinal cord injury.

•Spinal cord injuries cost the US an estimated $9.7 billion each year. Pressure sores alone, a common complication, cost an estimated $1.2 billion.