We have previously demonstrated in people with chronic neck pain arising from a whiplash trauma who have failed previous conservative treatment that injection of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) into the facet joints is safe, and provides significant relief of pain and disability. The positive benefits were demonstrated, at 3-months, and maintained at 6-, and 12-months. Thus, this looked promising as a solution for those injured in whiplash mechanisms to improve their quality of life.

Higher utilization of diagnostic imaging modalities and increased use of medications are associated with worse health outcomes in chronic whiplash-associated disorders.

Firstly, thank you to a great team of collaborators – Michael Westaway, Geoff Schneider and Dr Ben Andruski, who were instrumental with this publication. We were recently informed that this manuscript had been accepted for publication by Physiotherapy Canada.

It’s been one of those months and one of those weeks. Busy, busy, busy, but good busy – grant success and publication success – a very rare combination for which you have to be thankful. Here’s our most recent publication, which I am very grateful to have been involved with.

Approximately 50% of people injured in motor vehicle collisions continue to report symptoms 12 months later. They demonstrate a constellation of symptoms that vary between individuals.

Well, we’re about to find out. Here is the protocol for a study we have actually just completed. It has taken us quite a while to get the protocol published, which happened this week thankfully. Thankfully, the completed results are likely to hit the press in the coming weeks.
What Is All the Fuss About?
When pain becomes chronic (> 3-months duration), the brain adapts.

At the recent IPSIS meeting, Dr Eldon Loh from Western University in Ontario presented the results of a study investigating the efficacy of PRP in the neck region. I was honored to be part of this study, which compared PRP to the use of steroids over a 6-month time period.
Dr. Loh and team were rigorous in their pursuit of whether outcomes were better for PRP versus steroid injections.

In July of this year, Dr. Taylor Burnham joined Vivo Cura Health. You likely recognize the name – yep, the son of one Dr. Robert Burnham. Dr. T joins us from the University of Utah as an interventional physiatrist, where he has extensive experience in all injection techniques, but also brings some very solid research underpinnings to his practice – Yey!

Well I’m back in conference territory, with a bunch of highly intelligent specialist MDs talking all things interventionist. I’m surrounded by docs who are trained with needles to get medicine into areas that relieve pain. They can literally bend needles sideways and around corners – they are that talented. We will be hearing lectures about how to access tricky areas, where the medicine really flows and how to image where the medicine flows. Lectures will be spent on correct diagnostic standards and treatment outcomes of various procedures. This is all combined with anatomy reviews of the relevant body region, thus filling my brain with a cornucopia of information to absorb and process.

In this post, I wish to highlight the work of an outstanding physician who keeps on keeping on. Not only is he a wonderful physiatrist and interventionalist, but he’s just a wonderful humble human being. He’s also our medical director at Vivo Cura and my birthday is coming up 😉. Anyway, one of the tenants we practice by at Vivo Cura – is innovation – and essentially we ask ourselves: Can we do things better or differently to benefit the patient. This year alone, Dr Robert Burnham has published 3 papers on such innovations. I have highlighted one previously regarding our data on PRP injections into the lumbar spine disc. However there are another two that have recently been published.

We are very fortunate to receive a Research Grant in The Future Role of Physiotherapy in Primary Care fom the the Physiotherapy Foundation of Canada to investigate the effects of pain, sleep and physical outcome in people with chronic whiplash-associated disorders. The primary investigator for this successful grant is the quite brilliant Lisa Jasper from the University of Alberta. What are we studying: “Physiological Measures Associated With Poor Health Outcomes in Chronic WAD: A Cross-Lagged Panel Analysis of Fitness Tracker Data” That all sounds a little complicated.