Episode 13: Low back pain fact 3 with Prof Rachelle Buchbinder: 'it's rarely associated with serious tissue damage'

Professor Rachelle Buchbinder is a world-leading back pain clinician and researcher, today she discusses the current understanding and management of low back pain. Rachelle, who is a rheumatologist, clinical epidemiologist, and NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow at Monash University in Melbourne was kind enough to have a conversation with Professor Peter O’Sullivan and Kevin Wernli. Rachelle led the distinguished low back pain series of research papers in the prestigious medical journal ‘The Lancet’ (https://www.thelancet.com/series/low-back-pain), a series that was highly publicised and highly regarded in the low back pain field. Rachelle has been at the forefront of promoting better, and eliminating wasteful, musculoskeletal pain management and has been tenacious in this endeavour. Key take-homes were: Social sharing and mass media campaigns can be pivotal at moving the needle in a positive direction Vested and conflicts of interest are rife in the low back pain industry, presenting a big barrier for high-value care Back pain due to serious tissue damage is incredibly rare (less than 1% in primary care), but this doesn’t mean people can’t have serious pain. For the overwhelming majority, you don’t need imaging, it is safe to stay at work, and safe to keep moving, even if you have serious pain (which can be influenced by lots of different physical, emotional and lifestyle factors). You can find the show notes at: www.bodylogic.physio/podcast which features over 20 references to the studies discussed in this episode! Twitter handles: https://twitter.com/EBPPodcast https://twitter.com/RachelleBuchbin https://twitter.com/PeteOSullivanPT https://twitter.com/JPCaneiro https://twitter.com/KWernliPhysio *Peter O’Sullivan and JP Caneiro were awarded specialisation by the Australian College of Physiotherapists in 2005 and 2013 respectively. Theme music by Fervun and Cash. Produced by Kevin Wernli