PD PROFILE Denise Luscombe MACP and Bas Jansen APAM discuss the upcoming course they developed to aid physiotherapists in understanding and implementing therapeutic supported lying strategies.

The Australian Pain Society’s 44th Annual Scientific Meeting was held at the Darwin Convention Centre in April this year, in the International Association for the Study of Pain’s Global Year about Sex and Gender Disparities in Pain. The following articles consider how physiotherapists can be upskilled to more effectively manage patients living with pain, how psychological treatments can improve patient outcomes and the role of interpersonal relationships in chronic pain.

RESEARCH FOCUS While pain science education is regularly used to help patients with musculoskeletal pain, its use in other chronic pain conditions such as persistent pelvic pain has been limited. New research aims to change that.

Megan Clark and Dr Ruth Hardman of the APA Pain national group present five discussion points about the influence of sex differences (biological) and gender differences (personal and social identity) on the prevalence, experience and treatment of pain.

Public patients in Canberra with painful knee osteoarthritis conditions are now being filtered through a conservative management program designed to reduce the surgery waitlist and improve patient outcomes. In this first of two part series, we look at the community program helping to open up a new knee OA care pathway.

Chronic pain affects both physical and mental health and imposes a significant personal and financial burden on Australian society.

A facilitator of the Specialisation Training Program, Mathew Smith says he is paying it forward for the help he received while undertaking the highly regarded milestone.

Professors An De Groef and Nele Devoogdt of Belgium have written an Invited Topical Review on physiotherapy management of breast cancer treatment-related sequelae. Invited Topical Reviews are a hugely popular feature in the Journal of Physiotherapy because they summarise the causes, assessment, diagnosis, prognosis and management of the condition.

A group of physiotherapists in Sydney collaborated on a systematic review of the effects of health coaching in patients with chronic non- cancer pain. The first author, Talia Barnet-Hepples, answers some questions about the review.

A unique multidisciplinary service catering specifically to larger patients and building the capability of healthcare services to provide equitable and excellent obesity care has started up in Melbourne. Founder Nadia Walton says demand for the service has been high.