Back-UP is an IT system that is being developed to support a personalised management of nonspecific neck and low back pain, using digital clinical data, prognostic models and knowledge of evidence-based treatments.
The data processed by the platform comprises multiple health dimensions, from the smallest scale (glycomics), through biomechanics, to psychosocial factors assessed by validated questionnaires and psychological tests. The knowledge-based system will estimate the most likely future outcomes, quantified by standard pain and disability scales (e.g. RMDQ for low back pain and NDI for neck pain), measures of time off work, and probability of recurrence. It will also provide information about matched treatments, costs, adaptation to the workplace, or insurance-related issues.
The system is addressed to three broad types of users: the professionals that treat the patient, the patients themselves, and researchers. Back-UP’s infrastructure comprises three platforms specifically oriented to those users, which with each other through APIs that facilitate the exchange and re-use of information through the trajectory of a patient, in the recovery and return-to work process.

CLINICAL MANAGEMENT OF NECK AND LOW BACK PAIN THROUGH PERSONALISED PROGNOSTIC MODELS: THE BACK-UP PROJECT