A recent Four Corners story ‘Pain Factory’ featured Prof Ian Harris and covered a Cochrane review by Adrian Traeger, Chris Maher and team. The program dealt with a range of factors central to Wiser Healthcare. More than three million Australians are living with chronic pain, [...]
In an episode of ABC’s Four Corners this week, the use of spinal cord stimulators for chronic back pain was brought into question. Spinal cord stimulators are devices implanted surgically which deliver electric impulses directly to the spinal cord. They’ve been used to treat people with chronic [...]
Lumbar spine diagnostic imaging reports may cause patient and clinician concern when clinically unimportant findings are not explicitly described as benign. Our primary aim was to determine the frequency that common, benign findings are reported in lumbar spine plain X-ray, computed tomography (CT) and magnetic [...]
The objective of this study is to compare and contrast the quality statements and quality indicators across clinical care standards for low back pain. Searches were performed in Medline, guideline databases, and Google searches to identify clinical care standards for the management of low back [...]
Corporations have been developing tactics to undermine independent science for decades. In the 1950s, on learning of the damaging effects of tobacco on health, the tobacco industry used campaigns of criticism to defend their products and the substantial revenue they were generating. Corporations could effectively [...]
Although placebo-controlled trials are considered the gold standard for evaluating the efficacy of healthcare interventions, they can be perceived to be controversial and challenging to conduct for surgical treatments. The SUcceSS trial is the first placebo-controlled trial of lumbar decompression surgery for symptomatic lumbar canal [...]
Several validated decision rules are available for clinicians to guide the appropriate use of imaging for patients with musculoskeletal injuries, including the Canadian CT Head Rule, Canadian C-Spine Rule, National Emergency X-Radiography Utilization Study (NEXUS) guideline, Ottawa Ankle Rules and Ottawa Knee Rules. However, it [...]
Low‐back pain (LBP) is a common condition seen in primary care. A principal aim during a clinical examination is to identify patients with a higher likelihood of underlying serious pathology, such as vertebral fracture, who may require additional investigation and specific treatment. All 'evidence‐based' clinical [...]
This research provides a snapshot for comparison with future spinal surgery billing patterns (under the revised schedule). While surgical fees were largely appropriate, there was significant evidence of inappropriate use of item numbers including repeat billing of the same item as well as extensive use [...]
Privately funded spinal surgery rates continue to be larger than for publicly funded procedures, and they have also increased more rapidly. These differences may indicate that some privately funded procedures are unnecessary, or that the number of publicly funded procedures does not reflect clinical need.