Our goal is to improve access to recommended treatments for lower-back pain that are patient centered and aligns with Veteran Affair’s national priorities for best practices. Lower back pain disproportionately effects the active duty military population which consequently is predictive of chronic low back pain later in life. These issues impact the lives of veterans as chronic reliance on opioids to alleviate pain can lead to abuse. In partnership with the Pain Management Collaboratory, AIM-Back seeks to improve access to recommended nonpharmacological therapies, minimize utilization of higher-risk treatments such as opioids and surgery, and optimize long-term outcomes for reduced pain.
“I consider the biological perspective, the psychological perspective and then at least being aware of some of the social issues, which right now really has a ton of information on pain. That to me is a really effective way for PTs in particular to help make sure, at the very least, they have a better educated client or patient at the end of the care.”
Citations:
Mattila, Ville M et al. “Low back pain during military service predicts low back pain later in life.” PloS one vol. 12,3 e0173568. 10 Mar. 2017, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0173568
Reif, Sharon et al. “Prevalence of Pain Diagnoses and Burden of Pain Among Active Duty Soldiers, FY2012.” Military medicine vol. 183,9-10 (2018): e330-e337. doi:10.1093/milmed/usx200
