Seven prognostic factors from self-reported asessments for low back pain

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An “umbrella review” of prognostic factors for predicting future pain, disability and return‐to‐work/work absence in neck and low back pain populations, has been published by Gemma Mansell et al. in the European Journal of Pain, presenting seven prognostic factors (disability/activity limitation, mental health; pain intensity; pain severity; coping; expectation of outcome/recovery; and fear‐avoidance) that were judged as having moderate confidence for robust findings.

Find the paper here: https://doi.org/10.1002/ejp.1782

Literature review on malingering detection in whiplash associated disorders

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Congratulations to the team of Monaro et al., who have just published a second paper on the topic of detection of malingering in whiplash associated disorders, in the International Journal of Legal Medicine. This time, the featured article is a systematic review on the different strategies and techniques used in the field.

Read the full article in https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-021-02589-w

New paper published in the International Journal of Legal Medicine

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The paper entitle “A model to differentiate WAD patients and people with abnormal pain behaviour based on biomechanical and self-reported tests“, by Merylin Monaro et al., has been published in the International Journal of Legal Medicine, showing that the combination of self-reported pain symptoms and motion parameters obtained from biomechanical tests can be useful to evaluate the level of collaboration of patients in the assessment whiplash-related neck pain.

Read the full paper in https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-021-02572-5

Back-UP workshop on Personalised Medicine and Glycoscience

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Next Tuesday, March 30th at 8:45 CEST there will be a workshop on Personalised Medicine programmes, with the participation of Dragan Primorac, President of the Croatian Society for Personalised Medicine and former Minister of Science, Education and Sports of Croatia, in which the Back-UP Platform and some of its components will be presented, with a special focus on the usage of glycans as biomarkers for inflammation.

The schedule of the workshop is:

  1. Gordan Lauc: Introduction to the Workshop (5 min)
  2. Dragan Primorac: Introduction to St. Catharine’s Hospital and its personalised medicine programmes (5 min)
  3. Helios de Rosario Martínez: Integrated BackUP system for management of low-back pain (20 min)
  4. Milton Hoz de Vila: The BackUP App (20 min)
  5. Gordan Lauc: Glycan biomarkers of inflammation (20 min)

Participate in the workshop via Zoom:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86770257667?pwd=THMzYzNxb2VnbHRrTFAwMlNXQWl0QT09

Here you can download the programme

Look for the Back-UP self-management resources in your own language

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As part of the Back-UP project, Dr Jonathan Hill (from Keele University UK) is leading a task to develop lists of trustworthy online self-management resources for patients with musculo-skeletal problems, adapted to the culture and language of as many European countries as possible.

If you are a health care professional, carer, or a person suffering from neck or low back pain, you can already find a document with such resources in 10 different languages (English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Danish, Swedish, Dutch, Polish and Portuguese).

Check them at http://backup-project.eu/?page_id=84

Effectiveness of workplace intervention strategies in lower back pain prevention: a review

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A systematic review to identify effective work place intervention strategies for the prevention of low back pain, by Danuta Roman-Liu et al. has been published in the Industrial Health journal, showing that the most effective strategies include technical modifications of the workstand and education based on practical training.

Read the full paper in: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7708737/

Try the NEW FREE Back-UP first contact tool!

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The Back-UP first contact tool for clinicians is now live! Try it in:

https://back-upv1.multi-x.org/

The content has been designed by clinicians to support initial treatment decision-making for patients with back and neck pain, and it has being designed to work in 12 European languages (English, Italian, Danish, Swedish, Dutch, Spanish, German, Polish, French, Portuguese, Croatian & Norwegian).

The Back-UP free web app offers clinicians and their patients:

  • Useful patient self-management resources in your language
  • Personalised, automated Care Plans for your patients to use as a clinical summary of musculoskeletal consultations
  • Risk stratification with risk-matched treatment options
  • Individualised prediction graphs for each patient’s pain, function and work outcomes

The web app will be made available to you as part of early research testing in 3 stages:

  1. Self-management resources and Care Plan tool
  2. Risk stratification and individualised prediction graphs
  3. My Statistics, enabling you to compare your decision-making to other clinicians

The first 240 clinician users to complete their feedback on the Back-UP web-app will receive a £25 Amazon gift voucher (the vouchers are spread fairly across the different languages).

This project has ethical approval from Keele University UK, for convenience sampling using international professional and clinical networks.

Identifiable patient data is not entered or saved in the Back-UP web app. At this point in its research development the Back-UP web app is not linked to any routine electronic medical record systems. The web app will be made available until mid-December 2020.

We would be delighted if you would try it out in your clinical practice and give us feedback on how to improve it.

First contact Back-UP web app

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University of Keele’s team, led by Dr. Jonathan Hill, is developing a first contact web app to support clinicians to quickly send patients relevant information about self-management resources in multiple languages for patients with musculoskeletal problems, as part of a digital tool designed to enable patients to be able to leave the clinical consultation with their own individualized Care Plan.

If you are a clinician that is interested in testing this new webapp during Sept-Nov 2020 with your patients to help further refine it – please email Dr. Hill at j.hill@keele.ac.uk