COCA Executive Member Appointed on RACGP Panel

COCA Executive member Simon French was recently appointed to a committee set up by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) to develop guidelines for GP’s to manage low back pain patients.

The RACGP was awarded a contract to complete the development of evidence-based guidelines and for the production of an implementation and promotion strategy for the management of patients presenting with acute low back pain. The guidelines are to be made available primarily to GPs, but will be distributed to other health professionals, hospital specialists and patients, in Australia.

The objective is to develop a user friendly evidence-based guide for GPs for the management of acute low back pain. Other groups in Australia are currently developing guidelines for pain in other regions. The RACGP group will be collaborating with these groups to produce the guidelines.

The project has been funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aging, Diagnostic Imaging Section.