Improving the management of whiplash-associated disorders by physiotherapists and chiropractors

In early 2008, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) presented Dr Saravana Kumar with the National Institute for Clinical Studies (NICS) Fellowship, co-sponsored by TRACsa: Trauma and Injury Recovery and the Motor Accident Commission of South Australia (MAC). Recently, TRACsa was dissolved and all operations taken over by MAC.

Dr Saravana Kumar, Research Fellow and Lecturer, International Centre for Allied Health Evidence, University of South Australia, will utilise this fellowship to address the internationally recognised issue of improving the management of people with Whiplash-Associated Disorders (WAD) by physiotherapists and chiropractors.

Nationally and internationally, WAD account for 42% of the 6,000 Compulsory Third Party (CTP) claims and a third of costs, which is more than $120 million per year. People suffering from whiplash-associated disorders (WAD) are currently offered a range of costly treatment and rehabilitation options, but despite this many patients remain in constant pain and develop long-term complaints.

Over the next two-years, Dr Kumar aims to improve processes and outcomes of health care by implementing TRACsa’s new clinical guidelines for best practice management of acute and chronic whiplash-associated  disorders. In order to achieve this Dr Kumar will be working with physiotherapists, chiropractors and consumers.  The ultimate goal of the fellowship project is to address the broadening gap between evidence and current practice in the management of WAD.

As part of his project, Dr Kumar will assess current practice in the management of WAD and will provide a multi-dimensional strategy to support guideline implementation by physiotherapists and chiropractors. Recognising the growing and important role of consumers, this research will provide consumers with TRACsa’s ‘guide for injured people’ to assist their understanding of WAD and available treatment options. This website is another tangible outcome of this Fellowship to date.

By working together with health care providers and consumers, and identifying their unique perspectives of guideline implementation, Dr Kumar will address the current evidence-practice gap in WADs management.

Evidence implementation is a complex science and our understanding on how to implement evidence into practice successfully is growing on a daily basis. What makes this project unique is that it brings in stakeholders of WAD (providers and consumers) and identifies from their perspective what works and what doesn’t in evidence implementation, and its influence on health care processes and outcomes. Lessons from this project will help inform other similar projects in the future as well. This project also gives Dr Kumar the ideal opportunity to work with experts in the field and learn from them.

Dr Kumar will be supported in this initiative by two mentors. Professor Karen Grimmer-Somers, iCAHE Director, will be the project mentor while Dr Richenda Webb will be the NICS mentor. Professor Grimmer-Somers and Dr Webb will work closely with Dr Kumar throughout the project,   providing guidance on processes and outcomes of the Fellowship.   

More information about the fellowship project

Go to the Guideline Tools page to find a copy of the MAC guidelines that will be implemented in this project

Go to the Participating Practices page to look at the suburbs where the Implementation Project is reaching

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