Prevention of Work-related Muscular-skeletal Disorders in Colombia: A Prospective Study for 2025

Objectives: this study presents the results of a strategic prospective analysis applied on the prevention of work-related muscular-skeletal disorders in Colombia. First the state of the art was established, then an analysis of worldwide trends and megatrends in prevention was made, finally a challenge scenario was selected, which is considered by experts as the one which Colombia should aim at in 2025. Materials and methods: the method used is the one proposed in the Advanced Prospective Model 20081, which allows the selection of a “Challenge Scenario” based on retrospective analysis and the current status of a system under study, as well as the analysis of the trends, opinions of experts, monitoring of technology, interplay of actors, and their interrelation. Having these inputs, experts in diverse areas of interest for ergonomics and job hazards were appointed to develop the workshops in strategic prospective: Factors of change, strategic variables, interplay of actors, design of scenarios using the axes of Peter Schwartz, and morphologic analysis. Results: the data provided by the experts was processed via structural analysis using the MIC MAC software (1) and the relations with the actors were processed using Mactor (1), Conclusion: in such a way that the factors and their relations were analyzed until defining the vectors of change for the future in an objective way, which allows to devise strategies that transformed into actions, going from short-term to mid-term, allow the stakeholders to construct the future desired for the year 2025.