Collaborative Opportunity for Clinicians and Academia

One of the biggest debates revolving around research includes the stance that the world of academia needs a dose of clinical reality.

How many of you wonder if your patient will improve? You meet your patient and you wonder… will this patient improve? A friend of mine believed that one question alone would help answer this question. Very simply asking, “how confident are you that you will improve?” Okay, it may be helpful, I’m not sure it has a solid bulk of research supporting that a single question can give an answer.

Right now, all of you using FOTO have an opportunity to help Dave Walton. Let me jog your memory… Dave was a recent recipient of the $10,000 D. L. Hart Memorial Research Grant. Dave and his team are on an adventure. They are on a mission focused on predicting individuals who will experience continued disability and persistent pain. This research is definitely relevant for clinicians in the trenches. To know the risk will inform your clinical decisions – including the words you use, the therapeutic alliance you build, the interventions you choose and the referrals you recommend.

The way Dave and his team planned on learning and predicting hinged on a patient self-report measure, the Traumatic Injuries Distress Scale.  The study is: “Translation and Further Validation of a Risk-Based Prognostic Screening Questionnaire.” You have a very, very easy way to collaborate and assist Dave and his team’s endeavor. Within the administrative portal of FOTO, you can go to the various optional surveys. Set the Traumatic Injuries Distress Scale (TIDS) so that it is required. If you are familiar with the STaRT back screening tool, it seems to me that the TIDS is somewhat similar. The TIDS’s scores range between 0-24 points. Initial score thresholds for clinical interpretation of the TIDS are as follows: Rapid recovery scores: <= 3 points; Slow or partial recovery scores: = 4 – 9 points;Non-recovery scores: >= 10 points. If you could capture complete episodes of care for at least 10 patients who are being treated for a musculoskeletal problem, you’d really be helping this project. Dave’s team is depending on clinicians like you for successful completion of the research study. Please take this opportunity to clinically support this research project.

Until next time,

~Selena