Dr Caitlin Jones aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of opioids for low back pain, and uncovered some interesting findings in her research. Dr Caitlin Jones unpacks her findings in this latest episode of Research Bytes. Listen to find out more, you can read [...]
The ability to efficiently identify patients at higher risk of poor outcomes after joint replacement would enable limited resources for post-operative follow-up to be directed to those with the greatest clinical need. This is particularly important as joint replacement rates continue to grow internationally, stretching [...]
This study established a hierarchy of the goals most important to patients, identifying key goals as improving mobility, reducing pain, and improving daily tasks. Health professionals involved in the recommendation of knee arthroplasty were generally found to be able to identify what patients wanted to [...]
This study aimed to evaluate whether voluntary and mandatory prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) use in Victoria, Australia, had an impact on prescribing behaviour, focusing on individual patients' prescribed opioid doses and transition to prescribing of nonmonitored medications.
Thank you for the invitation to respond to a letter received about our article titled “Time to reflect on open-label placebos and their value for clinical practice.”Letter authors Ballou and Kube disagree with some of our criticisms of currently available research on open-label placebos (OLPs). [...]
The primary aim of the Back@Home study is to assess the effectiveness of a virtual hospital model of care to reduce the length of admission in people presenting to ED with musculoskeletal LBP. A secondary aim is to evaluate the acceptability and feasibility of the [...]
The Internet is a widely used source of health information, yet the accuracy of online information can be low. This is the case for low back pain (LBP), where much of the information about LBP treatment is poor. This research conducted a content analysis to [...]
Internationally, non-traumatic low back pain (LBP) is an increasingly common presentation to ambulance services. Consequently, paramedics are often the first providers of care for people with LBP. Australian guidelines for paramedic management of LBP recommend the use of simple analgesia, hot/cold therapy and for people [...]
Most simple undisplaced fractures can be managed without surgery by immobilising the limb with a splint, prescribing medication for pain, and providing advice and early rehabilitation. Recent systematic reviews based on retrospective observational studies have reported that virtual fracture clinics can deliver follow-up care that [...]
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 [...]