Chiropractic Research Seminar:
Generating evidence for practice: the riddle of low back pain
When: Thursday 20th October, 2011, 1.00 to 2.00 pm
Where: Building E8A, Room 280 (Biology tearoom), Macquarie University
Cost: FREE. No bookings required. All welcome
Description
Department of Chiropractic Research Seminar
Generating evidence for practice: the riddle of low back pain
Kathryn Refshauge, Professor of Physiotherapy at the University of Sydney, will discuss the burden of
chronic back pain and how it affects one in ten people who live with it in Australia. Recovery is slow
and incomplete resulting in societal costs of up to $15 billion each year. Serious pathologies such as
spinal fracture, infection or tumour account for less than one percent of back pain cases. Despite
advances in medical imaging and clinical tests, it is difficult to identify a precise patho-anatomic
cause of the back pain, as there is little correlation between symptoms and findings of structural
abnormalities, such as bulging or herniated discs. Treatment directed at pathological abnormalities is
not possible, instead, clinical management aims to relieve symptoms and improve function. Clinical
trials on treatments to relieve back pain and disability have proved not to have a clinically
worthwhile effect on these outcomes, as lack of effective treatment contributes to thirty percent of
patients developing chronic pain and disability after an episode of back pain.
Kathryn is Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences and previously Associate Dean (Research
and Innovation) and Head of the School of Physiotherapy. She is a musculoskeletal physiotherapist
with a Graduate Diploma of Manipulative Physiotherapy, Masters of Biomedical Engineering and a
PhD in Physiology. In her research, she aims to integrate these disciplines to contribute to solving
the most perplexing health problems in our community such as back and neck pain. She has
conducted many studies of treatment efficacy, diagnostic accuracy, prognosis and predictors of
outcome. She is investigating issues related to treatment satisfaction, therapeutic alliance,
communication and patient-centred care. She has published more than 160 refereed articles, edited
3 books and written 18 book chapters. She is currently on the board of Sports Medicine Australia,
and a member of the NSW Population and Health Services Ethics Committee. The work of Kathryn
Refshauge's group has not found large effects from treatment or accurate methods for diagnoses.
Building on this research journey, with the knowledge that patients keep seeking care, her group
interviewed patients to determine whether they were measuring the wrong outcomes and to
explore the construct of recovery.
Location: Go to O24 on campus map
Parking: Parking fees apply. Tickets can be purchased from vending machines in car parks (accepts
coins and credit cards). W4, X3 and X4 car parks are designed for casual parking
For more information contact Stephney Whillier or tel: 9850 9387