Topics covered:
This course is intended for all clinicians and students undergoing physiotherapy, medicine and other health-related training.
It starts with an introduction to diagnostics as a separate science from therapeutics. Diagnostics has its own conceptual framework and statistical measures. Fortunately, these do not require more than simple mathematics, and the use of an electronic spreadsheet.
The origin of data from diagnostic accuracy studies is described and the international standard for reporting of results is introduced. This is the STARD 2015 document. The concepts of reference standard and index tests, the 2X2 contingency table are introduced. A simple electronic spreadsheet is provided, but the calculation of sensitivity, specificity and predictive values from the 2X2 contingency table is presented graphically and is easily followed.
The clinical value of sensitivity, specificity and predictive values is covered in detail, and the effect of prevalence on them is explained. The positive and negative likelihood ratios are described, and you learn how to interpret these, calculate pre and post-test probabilities then use them correctly in a clinical setting.
Diagnosis is explained as a sequential, integrated process that involves pattern recognition, ruling in and ruling out possible diagnoses. Though the course starts with very simple concepts, by the end of the 5th lesson you will understand how sequential reasoning and the use of multiple clinical tests are validated and used in routine clinical settings.
There are some practical assignments on real data and published papers to help cement the course content and you can do the quizzes to test your understanding.
Approximate learning hours: 8
Access: 12 months| Designed for physiotherapists who have graduated recently or are starting to learn management of back pain patients. You will learn practical hands-on assessment & management that goes beyond international guideline principles.
$160
We will address the DONTs, focusing mostly on “Trivializing the Catastrophic” which guidelines tend to encourage. Brief presentations of recent cases seen are used to illustrate failures of routine guideline management. 90 min presentation. Q & A.
$20
Recorded Webinar | Access: 12 months | $20 | Listen to Dr Mark Laslett discussing specific painful lumbar spine diagnoses like discogenic, facetogenic & SIJ pain. It is possible, necessary or desirable? Q & A session, manual & CPD Certificate.
$20
Access for: 12 months | Dr Mark Laslett presents 3 video case studies of persistent low back pain with over 12 months follow up. Three different sources of nociception identified by clinical exam, then verified. Case reports & notes included.
$80
Physiotherapy Specialist Musculoskeletal
Mark has over 50 years of clinical experience in musculoskeletal practice. He completed his PhD in “Diagnostic accuracy of the clinical examination compared to available reference standards in chronic low back pain patients” at the University of Linköping, Sweden in 2001 and in 2014 he became the first Specialist Physiotherapist registered in New Zealand.
His academic and research interest is in the theory and practice of diagnostics, has over 40 publications, contributed chapters to two multi-author books and published his own text Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy: The Upper Limb in 1996.
He became a Fellow of the New Zealand College of Physiotherapy in 2007, was made an honorary Life Member of Physiotherapy New Zealand in September 2014, and of the New Zealand Manipulative Physiotherapists Association in 2015.
He continues to practice as a consultant clinician in Christchurch, NZ and remains active in clinical research.
More info about Mark Laslett: https://www.marklaslett.nz/
Mark’s publications: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mark-Laslett
