As part of the original award, an evidence-supported group treatment approach for clients with persistent musculoskeletal pain termed SOLAS: Self-management of Osteoarthritis and Low back pain through Activity and Skills was developed. Also, a two day face-to-face physiotherapist training programme was developed and delivered to HSE primary care physiotherapists from Dublin/Kildare to support them to manage patients in the SOLAS trial [http://www.ucd.ie/solastrial/]
We propose to improve knowledge exchange and dissemination by increasing the competency and number of Physiotherapists working in primary care clinics in the HSE across Ireland to manage clients using the SOLAS programme. This will reduce the time needed to move to a larger trial, and increase the accessibility of the SOLAS programme to HSE physiotherapists and clients across Ireland.
In order to do this, we aim to develop a sustainable and interactive e-learning training platform (SOLAS.net) that can be integrated and adopted into health service systems, particularly within the HSE.
The study objectives are two-fold:
to ensure the online method of training physiotherapists to deliver SOLAS is comparable to the current face-to-face method on relevant outcomes for effective training.
to assess the online training format as a tool to aid the implementation of the SOLAS programme in real world settings using WHO recommended outcomes (acceptability, appropriateness, feasibility, fidelity, sustainability and cost).
This will involve adapting the existing SOLAS training programme and website for a high quality E-learning experience with strong physiotherapist engagement and feedback to mirror the face-to-face experience using selected evidence-based knowledge exchange and dissemination strategies.