Telecare collaborative management of low back pain in primary care (CONNECT)

Healthcare for low back pain costs Australia over $1.2 billion every year and over half of that expenditure arises from surgical management. In many cases patients progress to surgery without ever receiving the recommended elements of primary care management of these conditions. We will develop and evaluate a new model of care that uses automated symptom and function monitoring, a health coach and management algorithm to optimise the primary care management of patients with low back pain. Our project will determine whether use of this new model improves disease management, health outcomes and reduces use of surgery.