Excellent Care for All

Low Back Pain Strategy

Educational tools to assist providers and patients

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Low Back Pain Toolkit

This toolkit was developed to assist with the assessment and management of patients with low back pain in primary care settings.

The toolkit was developed as part of the Low Back Pain Strategy, by Centre for Effective Practice with the review and advice of an expert committee, Education Planning Committee and primary care focus groups. It includes a new tool designed to meet the needs of primary care providers by bringing together existing tools and evidence into a one-page easy to use summary/charting tool. This toolkit was circulated in hard copy to primary care providers in March 2013. The government of Ontario will not be providing additional hard copies. You are encouraged to download and print the toolkit from the links below. This toolkit is also available in French at ontario.ca/lombalgie.

Clinical Tools

Download PDFs of the tool in colour or black & white.

• Clinically Organized Relevant Exam (CORE) Back Tool
  Colour  |  Black & White
• CORE Back Tool Guide
  Colour  |  Black & White

Supporting Tools

Download PDFs of the tool in colour or black & white.

• Opioid Risk Tool
  Colour  |  Black & White
• Patient Education Inventory
  Colour  |  Black & White
• Personal Action Planning for Patient Self Management
  Colour  |  Black & White
• The Keele StarT Back Screening Tool
  Colour  |  Black & White

In addition to the listed, the following reference tools are available for additional support

Note that the following tools are available through the websites of external organizations/groups. The developers of these reference tools are responsible for the currency, accuracy and completeness of the content published. Tools below have not been translated as part of the Provincial Strategy and are currently available in English only, unless otherwise indicated.

For Providers

• Pharmacy Tables : St. Michael's Hospital, Department of Family and Community Medicine
• Acute and Subacute Low Back Pain (LBP) - Pharmacological Alternatives
• Acute and Subacute Low Back Pain (LBP) - Topical and Herbal Products
• Evidence Summary for Management of Non-specific Chronic Low Back Pain (POCKET)
• Opioid Manager (also available in French here)
• Switching Opioids Form

For Patients

• Back Book (UK) (available for online viewing only or for purchase at: www.tsoshop.co.uk)
• Back Exercises for all 4 patterns (Saskatchewan)
• Pattern #1 Patient Education
• Pattern #2 Patient Education
• Pattern #3 Patient Education
• Pattern #4 Patient Education
• General Recommendations for Maintaining a Healthy Back: Patient Information (Saskatchewan)
• So Your Back Hurts (POCKET)
• What you should know about Acute Pain (TOP)
• What you should know about Chronic Pain (TOP)

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Note : The CORE tool and Guide are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada License. You are free to Share (copy, distribute and transmit the work) given that you provide attribution, do not use the work for commercial purposes and do not alter, transform or build upon this work without contacting the Centre for Effective Practice. If you are interested in building upon this work or using the tools for commercial purposes, please contact info@effectivepractice.org.