Providing Epidemiological Data in Lumbar Spine Imaging Reports Did Not Affect Subsequent Utilization of Spine Procedures: Secondary Outcomes from a Stepped-Wedge Randomized Controlled Trial.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To evaluate the effect of inserting epidemiological information into lumbar spine imaging reports on subsequent nonsurgical and surgical procedures involving the thoracolumbosacral spine and sacroiliac joints.

Design

Analysis of secondary outcomes from the Lumbar Imaging with Reporting of Epidemiology (LIRE) pragmatic stepped-wedge randomized trial.

Setting

Primary care clinics within four integrated health care systems in the United States.

Subjects

238,886 patients ≥18 years of age who received lumbar diagnostic imaging between 2013 and 2016.

Methods

Clinics were randomized to receive text containing age- and modality-specific epidemiological benchmarks indicating the prevalence of common spine imaging findings in people without low back pain

SUBMITTER: Suri P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8185556 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature