Publications by authors named "C V Maher"
Objectives: To develop and user-test a patient decision aid providing evidence-based information for people with chronic low back pain (LBP) and degenerative disc disease considering lumbar fusion.
Design: Convergent parallel mixed methods study.
Setting: A prototype patient decision aid was developed, guided by the International Patient Decision Aid Standards (IPDAS) criteria, a multidisciplinary steering committee, and insights from previous studies.
Introduction: Musculoskeletal pain is the second leading cause of disease burden in Australia, and there is a need to investigate new models of care to cope with the increasing demand for health services. This paper describes the protocol for a randomised controlled trial investigating whether a physiotherapist-led triage and treatment service is non-inferior for improving function at 6 months and superior for reducing treatment waiting times, compared with usual care for patients with musculoskeletal pain referred to public hospital outpatient physiotherapy clinics.
Methods And Analysis: A total of 368 participants (184 per arm) will be recruited from six public hospitals located in metropolitan Sydney, Australia.
Introduction: Sciatica is a debilitating condition that often becomes chronic, and for which there are few effective treatment options. Treatments such as the anti-depressant duloxetine have shown promise, but the evidence is inconclusive. We are describing a high quality, definitive trial to investigate the efficacy, safety and cost-effectiveness of duloxetine in chronic sciatica.
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