How to evaluate treatment effects in subgroups of low back pain – methodological and practical issues
Proposed by: Bart Koes, Chris Maher, Mark Hancock, et al

The workshop aims to increase interest and knowledge of studying treatment effects in subgroups of patients with low back pain and will provide a venue for the initiation of research collaborations in this field. The target audience is primarily low back pain researchers interested in research evaluating treatment effects in subgroups. The workshop will commence with a 20-minute presentation outlining the types of research that are possible for investigating treatment effects in subgroups. This will be a brief overview that will recap the main points of the pre-workshop readings. Participants will then divide into two groups and develop a research plan to evaluate the efficacy of a specific therapy for a subgroup of patients. One group will focus on a situation in which already some preliminary findings are available about the effect of the intervention for a particular subgroup (validation study). The other group will focus on the situation in which there are only preliminary ideas about treatment effects in subgroups but not yet any data (derivation study). Each group will present their plan to all workshop participants, followed by discussion.

12/01/08