Webinar: Dr. Prof. Chad Cook: Personalized Management of Low Back Pain

Why Personalized Care Is the Future of Low Back Pain Treatment

Low back pain remains the leading cause of disability worldwide and one of the most frequent presentations in physiotherapy practice. Yet despite increased investment and guideline development, outcomes have not improved accordingly.

Why is this happening? In this CPD course, Professor Chad Cook (Duke University) challenges the limitations of traditional population-based approaches and introduces a more precise, patient-matched model of care. You will learn how biological, psychological, and social factors interact to influence prognosis — and how to translate this into more targeted clinical decision-making.

Diagnostic Classification of Low Back Pain: From Red Flags to Chronic Pain

Accurate classification is the foundation of effective treatment.

This course introduces a practical 4-category classification model, enabling you to distinguish between:

• red flags (serious pathology, ~1–2%)
• region-specific pathology (~8–9%)
• dominant psychosocial factors (~65–80%)
• recalcitrant chronic low back pain (~10%)

Based on international literature and ICF principles, this framework supports faster triage, more appropriate referral decisions, and more focused treatment strategies — reducing unnecessary or ineffective care.

Prognostic Screening Tools in Physiotherapy Practice

One of the most common challenges in low back pain is not diagnosis — but prognosis.

Using validated tools such as:

• STarT Back Screening Tool
• Örebro Musculoskeletal Pain Questionnaire
• OSPRO Review of Systems

you will learn how to identify patients at risk of chronicity or prolonged disability early in the process.

Importantly, this module focuses not only on which tools to use, but:

• when to apply them
• how to interpret the results
• how to translate outcomes into concrete treatment decisions

→ enabling more efficient, targeted, and cost-effective care.

Shared Decision-Making and Patient-Centred Care

Personalized care is not just about selecting the right intervention — it requires alignment with the patient.

In this module, you will learn how to:

• integrate patient values, expectations, and beliefs into your clinical reasoning
• distinguish between matched care, stratified care, stepped care, and precision medicine
• apply shared decision-making in a structured and clinically efficient way

The result: improved adherence, clearer communication, and more sustainable treatment outcomes.

Learning goals

Upon completion of this training, the participant is able to

• construct a systematic differential diagnosis in patients with low back pain using the 4-category classification system (red flags, region-specific pathology, somatization, and recalcitrant chronic pain). The participant integrates critical awareness of the limitations of diagnostic categorization and the underlying scientific evidence into the clinical reasoning process.
• select, apply, and interpret validated prognostic screening instruments (STarT Back Screening Tool, Örebro Musculoskeletal Pain Questionnaire, OSPRO) in patients with low back pain within the context of risk stratification and personalized care planning. Clinical decision-making is based on a critical integration of prognostic data, contextual factors, and patient-specific characteristics.
• analyse and integrate the role of social determinants of health (such as socioeconomic status, living environment, and social risk factors) into the prognostic assessment and treatment plan for patients with low back pain. The participant develops an integrated perspective on both individual and population-level dimensions of low back pain management.
• apply the principle of personalized care (“matched care”) within the physiotherapy treatment process for patients with low back pain by systematically integrating patient values, beliefs, and preferences into a shared decision-making process. The participant critically distinguishes personalized care from related concepts such as precision medicine, stratified care, and stepped - analyse and integrate the role of social determinants of health (such as socioeconomic status, living environment, and social risk factors) into the prognostic assessment and treatment plan for patients with low back pain. The participant develops an integrated perspective on both individual and population-level dimensions of low back pain management.
• critically appraise the scientific evidence for personalized management of low back pain by analysing the methodological quality, applicability, and limitations of studies (including systematic reviews and RCTs). Based on this, the participant translates these insights into clinical practice and contributes to the ongoing professional and scientific development of the field.

Scientific Evidence and CPD Accreditation

This course is delivered by Professor Chad E. Cook (PT, PhD, FAPTA), an internationally recognized expert in musculoskeletal physiotherapy and clinical reasoning at Duke University (USA).

The content is grounded in current international literature and translated into clinically applicable frameworks for everyday physiotherapy practice.

Eligible for CPD accreditation under:

Dutch Quality Register for Physiotherapy Kwaliteitsuis Fysiotherapie and Pro-Q-Kine.