The oppor­tu­ni­ty

Low back pain is one of the lead­ing caus­es of dis­abil­i­ty world­wide. In South Aus­tralia, lim­it­ed access to afford­able com­mu­ni­ty-based care means many peo­ple turn to emer­gency depart­ments for con­di­tions that can usu­al­ly be man­aged in the community.

Dig­i­tal path­ways offer an inno­v­a­tive solu­tion by allow­ing care regard­less of where some­one lives or their finan­cial sit­u­a­tion. They can improve equi­ty, empow­er con­sumers, sup­port ear­li­er inter­ven­tion and poten­tial­ly reduce unnec­es­sary hos­pi­tal visits.

Our approach

We’re cre­at­ing a dig­i­tal path­way to help peo­ple with low back pain self-refer and access time­ly, evi­dence-based care. The path­way com­bines dig­i­tal assess­ment with video or tele­phone-based con­sul­ta­tions deliv­ered by phys­io­ther­a­py stu­dents at the Ade­laide Uni­ver­si­ty stu­dent clinics.

The path­way is suit­able for peo­ple with low back pain who do not require urgent med­ical care.

Co-designed with clin­i­cians, con­sumers, and aca­d­e­m­ic part­ners, the path­way will include:

• dig­i­tal triage tools to iden­ti­fy care needs
• video or tele­phone con­sul­ta­tions with super­vised phys­io­ther­a­py students
• abil­i­ty to com­mu­ni­cate with the stu­dent phys­io­ther­a­pists out­side of con­sul­ta­tion sessions
• evi­dence-based edu­ca­tion and self-man­age­ment tools and techniques
• patient report­ed expe­ri­ence and out­come measures.

The project will be eval­u­at­ed, and insights could help shape oth­er path­ways, includ­ing can­cer sur­vivor­ship and post-can­cer pain.

Part­ners

• Chron­ic Pain Statewide Clin­i­cal Network
• Ade­laide University 

The devel­op­ment of the dig­i­tal path­ways is also being kind­ly sup­port­ed by the CAL­HN Urgent Care Hub and CAL­HN physiotherapists.

Out­comes

We’re imag­in­ing a sys­tem where:

• Peo­ple with low back pain can access care quick­ly and afford­ably from their own homes and avoid unnec­es­sary hos­pi­tal visits. 
• Con­sumers can use sim­ple dig­i­tal tools to work with clin­i­cians to man­age their pain.
• Lessons from this project guide future path­ways for oth­er conditions.

Doc­u­ments and resources

• Low back pain | SA Health

Have a question?

Or want to learn more? Please email ceih.​chronicpain@​sa.​gov.​au.