JOSPT Insights

Rugby is seeing consistent growth in popularity and participation. It's also no secret that women's sport is also growing rapidly. Put those together and you enter the exciting and rapidly developing area of women's and girl's rugby.

Today, Dr Isla Shill (University of Victoria) discusses her research work in preventing injuries (including concussion) in girl's rugby. She shares the key components, and what it takes to implement an effective injury prevention program.

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RESOURCES

Effects of neuromuscular training warm-up for preventing injury and concussion in girl's rugby: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2026.13373

SHRED injuries neuromuscular training warm-up programs: https://www.ucalgary.ca/shred-injuries

Tips for supporting athletes to return to sport after concussion, with Dr Kathryn Schneider: https://pod.link/1522929437/episode/YTA0ZWY0NDgtYzNmZi00ODlmLTg5ZWQtMTAyMDE3ZTUxNjhk

Female, woman, and/or girl Athlete Injury pRevention: https://fairconsensus.com/

FAIR practical recommendations: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41330629/

Today’s guest—Dr Thomas Ibounig—who led the paper, “Rotator Cuff Imaging Abnormalities in Asymptomatic Shoulders: A systematic review” explores how prevalent abnormal MRI findings are in asymptomatic shoulders, and how the prevalence changes by population.

The systematic review is an exemplar of what musculoskeletal rehabilitation clinicians can learn from accepting what we don’t know!

Chelsea and Marquis wrap up the chat by thinking about how physical therapists can take the systematic review findings into account when educating and referring patients with shoulder pain.

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RESOURCES

Rotator cuff imaging abnormalities in asymptomatic shoulders systematic review: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2025.13611

More on the SCRUTINY (Systematic Review of Shoulder Imaging Abnormalities in Asymptomatic Adults) project: https://www.ficebo.com/project/scrutiny

Psychological factors can be prominent for people with tendinopathy–so how do you pick up on them? How might psychological factors guide your plan of care? Today, physiotherapist Jack Mest (University of Canberra), is your guide to understanding how best to screen for important psychological factors, and how to address them in the clinic.

Jack Mest is a PhD candidate, studying psychological factors associated with persistent tendinopathy and psychologically informed approaches in Achilles tendinopathy rehabilitation.

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RESOURCES

Psychological factors in people with and without persistent tendinopathy: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2025.13307

Scoping review of psychological factors in tendinopathy: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2022.11005

JOSPT Insights ep 255: what if clinicians trusted people in pain? With Joletta Belton & Ben Darlow: https://pod.link/1522929437/episode/ZjcwNTljYzMtMjI5Ny00NWI2LWJjNzMtYzlkZTA3ZjVhODcz

The Covid pandemic was an inflection point for many aspects of health care, including turbocharging uptake of virtual models of care.

Telerehabilitation was around before Covid, of course, but the past few years has seen it in a far more prominent place in health care systems. There's also increasing research evaluating different telerehabilitation interventions.

Dr Bruno Saragiotto (University of Technology Sydney) studies telehealth for chronic pain conditions, artificial intelligence and implementing digital solutions in health care. Today he joins JOSPT Insights to discuss the present and future of technology for improving outcomes in musculoskeletal rehabilitation.

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RESOURCES

Internet-based self-management for chronic pain (ReabilitaDOR Trial): https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2025.13418

Effectiveness of activity trackers and smartphone apps for increasing physical activity: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2026.13825

Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro): https://pedro.org.au/

In episode 258, Drs Ruth Chang and JP Caneiro explain the results of trials testing cognitive functional therapy (CFT). They explored what CFT is and how it might help people in pain.

In today's episode, Dr Caneiro (Curtin University; Evoolve Pain Care Academy) joins the JOSPT Insights community again to explain what is involved in learning the patient-centred CFT approach.

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RESOURCES

Evoolve Pain Care Academy: https://evoolvepaincare.academy/

Videos, infographics and written resources for clinicians: https://evoolvepaincare.academy/clinician-resources