Estimating the Budget Impact and Joint Replacement Avoidance by Implementing a Standardized Education and Exercise Therapy Program for Hip and Knee Osteoarthritis in a Publicly Insured Healthcare System.

Objective: Estimate the budget impact of funding a standardized education and exercise therapy program (GLA:D®) for people with hip and knee OA waiting for total joint replacement (TJR) consultation in a universal publicly insured healthcare system in Canada.

Methods: We built a budget impact analysis (BIA) model to estimate the annual cost of providing GLA:D® program to people waiting for TJR consultation and then forecasted a three-year budget cycle. The base case assumes 40% attend GLA:D®, 11% avoid surgery, uniform care delivery, training costs are incurred separately, and the healthcare system has enough trained staff to meet demand.

Diagnostic performance of self-reported knee crepitus using a Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score item.

Objective: To assess the diagnostic performance of a single Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) item in evaluating the presence of knee crepitus.

Design: All 184 participants aged 18-40 years with a symptomatic knee, 9-36 months following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) who were prospectively enrolled in a post-traumatic knee osteoarthritis trial (ACTRN12620001164987) were included. Participants completed the KOOS and underwent physical examination for knee crepitus at baseline.

What are the Perceptions and Lived Experiences of Canadian Injured Workers about the Provision of Physiotherapy Services using Telerehabilitation?

Purpose: Despite evidence of efficacy, the effectiveness of telerehabilitation in real-world clinical settings is still largely unknown. Telerehabilitation requires a substantial transformation of the organization and delivery of traditional services. Considering that a virtual setting can create unique challenges for providing physiotherapy services and given the physical and potential hands-on nature of evidence-based assessments and interventions, it is important to investigate what injured workers think of receiving physiotherapy care via telerehabilitation and to examine if rehabilitation needs are adequately met.

Exploring the Perceived Difficulty and Importance of Lower Limb Physical Activities for People With and Without Osteoarthritis: A Discrete Choice Experiment.

Background: Many outcome measures used in lower-limb osteoarthritis (OA) present ceiling effects. This compromises the ability of those measures to accurately assess people with higher levels of physical function. Understanding of the difficulty and importance of physical activities would enable the inclusion of challenging and meaningful activities in new outcome measures.

Prioritizing Knowledge User Engagement: Engaging Patients and the Public in Creating Enduring Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation Research.

To improve the potential for sustained success when implementing injury prevention programs, researchers must focus on patient and public involvement and engagement. Creating lasting equitable relationships between researchers and knowledge users (ie, improving patient and public involvement and engagement) takes time and purposeful investment. Researchers must prioritize, embrace, and integrate patient and public involvement and engagement as a dynamic and continuous social process, unique to each community setting; it is not a one-off checkbox.