Back in 2015 it was only a bunch of researchers of hanging out together around a coffee table talking about neck and back pain and how to improve the recovery process of patients.
Three years later, the most important European research institutions were joined together in a strong consortium and received an EU grant of 5,4M to develop Back-Up: an ambitious project to develop a new health care platform with a prognostic model to support more effective and efficient management of neck and low back pain.project to develop a new health care platform with a prognostic model to support more effective and efficient management of neck and low back pain.
“In 2018 there was a lot to do. Three years later we have a solution than can be a revolution in the pain management” states Helios de Rosario, project director of the Back-Up.
Neck and Low Back Pain is a leading cause for years lived with disability in Europe and worldwide. Moreover, low back pain is the leading cause work absence in Europe, and it causes an enormous burden on individuals, industry and governments.
“There is no definitive solution, but Back-Up outcomes will surely help”, continues De Rosario.
The project has reached 5 general objectives:
• The integration of multi-factorial models to assist the prognostics of non-specific NLBP.
• The design of an evidence-based protocol to support an improved prognostic assessment of NLBP
• Outputs to support personalised plans of intervention for recovery and adaptation of workplace, considering: Relevant treatment interventions, ergonomic adaptation/interaction and also the self-management of NLBP.
• The integration the procedures and models in software platforms based on existing validated solutions,
• The demonstration the value of the developed tool with more than 500 users.
The Back-UP platform, whose demos are available online, together with a webapp tool, is based on five components that were already existing and ensure that the majority of the specific objectives listed above can be met:
• The Professional Platform, based on GMV’s Antari Home Care
• The Researcher Platform, based on UNIVLEEDS’s Multi-X
• The Self-management Platform, based on NTNU’s selfBACK
• The Back-UP first contact tool V2.0, conceived by KU and developed by UNIVLEEDS
• Vocational advice module
• Ontology server
Giuseppe Caprara, Innovation Manager at IBV and member of the coordination team, points out that “The framework of cost-analysis benefit will help us to evaluate the impact of Back-UP on times and costs. Back-Up has identified that within > 50% of cases NLBP does not require intensive treatment, beyond self-management education and advice. This is expected to provide around a 7% cost reduction in the NLBP management process.”
The Back-UP consortium was brought together specifically for the diverse and complimentary expertise and skills contributed by individual partners. Geographically, the consortium is distributed across 8 European countries: Spain, UK, Italy, Norway, Nederland, Sweden, Croatia and Poland. It is built as a combination of RTDs, Universities, SMEs and LE technology suppliers.
Besides the Project Coordinator, Instituto de Biomecánica de Valencia (Spain) the rest of the partners have been: The University of Leeds (UK), GMV Soluciones Globales Internet S.A.U (Spain), empirica Gesellschaft für Kommunikations- und Technologieforschung mbH (Germany), Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universitet (Norway), Università di Padova (Italy), Roessingh Research and Development (The Netherlands), GENOS (Croatia), University of Split – Faculty of Science (Croatia – third partner), Karolinska Institutet (Sweden), Central Institute of Labour Protection-National Research Institute (Poland), Keele University (KUnited Kingdom) and MAZ Mutua Colaboradora con la Seguridad Social Nº 11 (Spain) - Former partners were the University of Sheffield (UK) and Università degli Studi di Parma (Italy).
“This is a strong and skilled group and we are ready for further collaborations” concludes Helios de Rosario.
