Physio Academy

The Back Pain 300 series of courses is a programme of study designed for physiotherapists, medical practitioners and other health care providers who have some experience in diagnosing and managing patients with persistent low back pain, and referred lower extremity pain. 

This course issues a challenge to the notion of ‘non-specific’ low back pain and shows you that it is, in fact, possible to identify specific subgroups of the back pain population using a thorough clinical assessment and advanced diagnostic techniques. The back pain 300 series of courses will look at the five common subsets of the back pain population. 

In the introductory lesson, we begin with an understanding of the anatomy, pathology, and biomechanics of the anterior column which is the largest source of nociception. The next course, Back Pain 301 deals directly with the largest subgroup of the back pain population, mechanical discogenic pain, which fortunately is the one that's easiest to treat conservatively. There are a further 8 courses that explore the sources, causes and confounding influences encountered in clinical management of persistent low back and referred lower extremity pain. 

Once this course has been completed successfully you will be ready to move on to the next course, Back Pain 301. After successful completion of the Back Pain 301 course, there are a further 8 courses that explore the sources, causes and confounding influences encountered in clinical management of persistent low back and referred lower extremity pain.

The Back Pain 300 series of courses provides you with:

• An overview of the sources and causes of low back and referred lower extremity pain and discusses their relationship to classification systems and national guidelines.
• A review of the evidence in support of the diagnostic accuracy of the clinical examination for causes of back and referred pain.
• A  framework for evidence based-clinical reasoning as it applies to diagnosis of low back disorders. This includes the basis for “diagnosis by subtraction”.
• Up-to-date, evidence-based diagnosis of discogenic, radicular, facetogenic, sacroiliac joint and other patho-anatomic pain syndromes.
• Standardized patient history protocol that supports clinical reasoning to a diagnosis and to patient management.
• Simple methods of identifying important factors that confound both diagnosis and treatment, such as neuropathic pain, central sensitisation and illness behaviours.
• Practice performance of key examination tests for nerve root compression and sacroiliac joint pain.