A country perspective on the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) project – the case of Norway

National burden of disease studies have been carried out in many countries in the past decade, and the Global Burden of Disease 2010 study (GBD 2010) created new momentum for these efforts in several additional countries, including Norway. Stein Emil Vollset will give an overview of what is known and what remains to be learned about health, disease, and risk factors in Norway. He will present potential additional data sources for disease burden work in Norway, which has a rich health registry infrastructure and many large epidemiological cohorts that have been followed for decades, and will discuss Norway's health registries in the context of the other Nordic countries. He will give a brief introduction to health registry and health research legislation and regulation, pointing out challenges in obtaining health data from several of the world's data-rich countries. Finally, he will discuss possible models for collaboration between Norway and IHME.