This course will review three key areas in the assessment and management of patellofemoral pain:

1. What are an individual’s primary pain drivers and which deficits are associated with their presentation?
2. How can we manage an individual’s pain and how does this integrate into their overall management plan?
3. When and how should we be looking to influence a patients’ structure, biomechanics, activity levels or psychosocial factors and how may this change through the management process?

Within this assessment and management approach, the tutors will highlight the importance of empowering the patient and developing their role in the self-management of the condition. They will introduce tools to educate the patient with respect to their pain presentation and bring to the fore a patient centred management plan.

There is so much more to managing patellofemoral pain than VMO exercises and patellar taping. Individuals with patellofemoral pain present with specific deficits that tailored management has the potential to modify and there is no place for a one-size-fits-all approach. This course will provide you with a greater ability to assess, stratify and manage individuals with patellofemoral pain. Most importantly, this course will provide you with practical and clinically applicable knowledge and competences that can be used the very next time you encounter a patient with patellofemoral pain.

Course aims:

• Improve your knowledge about patellofemoral pain prevalence and etiology
• Further develop your existing skills in:
  • assessing the anterior knee
  • using adjuncts (foot orthoses, taping, neuromuscular stimulation)
  • exercise prescription
  • running/movement re-training
  • education and activity modification
  • Improve your ability to develop and deliver tailored management to individuals with patellofemoral pain

Summary

One size does not fit all. Patellofemoral pain is a heterogeneous condition that presents in a number of different ways. Consequently, the assessment that we perform and subsequent management that we prescribe needs to take into account the individualities of specific patient presentations and incorporate patient preferences. The key issue is how can we effectively tailor our management to the patient right in front of us?

This one-day course will focus on expert assessment of the anterior knee and the subsequent development of a tailored management approach, which is deficit focussed and can be applied in clinical practice. More specifically, the tutors will present methods for the identification of a patient’s specific deficits with tools that can be easily adopted into the clinical setting. Having presented the case for stratification by deficit, the tutors will go on to discuss strategies that can be adopted to effectively manage individual presentations, considering how this may be applied within the broader context of an individual’s pain.

Course components:

3 hours of asynchronous, pre-recorded introductory lectures, to cover:

• Etiology of patellofemoral pain
• Risk factors and associated deficits in patellofemoral pain
• Principles of assessment of the anterior knee
• Evidence underpinning and principles of exercise prescription
• Adjuncts for patellofemoral pain and their supporting evidence
• Evidence underpinning and principles of running/movement re-training

Access to these lectures will be provided one month ahead of the course date.

4 hours of synchronous, live lectures, to cover:

• Assessment of the anterior knee
• Exercise prescription for patellofemoral pain rehabilitation
• Adjuncts for patellofemoral pain (foot orthoses & taping techniques
• Running/movement re-training for patellofemoral pain
  
• Question & answer session

2 hours of asynchronous, pre-recorded consolidation lectures, covering 4 specific case scenarios designed to test & confirm your knowledge.

Tutor:

Dr. Bradly Neal PhD, MSc (Adv Phy) BSc (Hons) MCSP

Brad is a physiotherapist who has worked in a combination of NHS, elite sport and private practice settings for the past 13 years.

He completed his MSc in Advanced Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy at the University of Hertfordshire in 2011, before joining Pure Sports Medicine as a Specialist Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist and Head of Research the same year. He completed his PhD studies at Queen Mary University of London in 2018, investigating the influence of lower limb biomechanics in the development, persistence and management of patellofemoral pain. He combines his research with both clinical and teaching roles and considers himself very much a clinical academic.

Dr. Neal is:

• A Research Fellow of Sports and Excercise Medicine at Queen Mary University of London.
• A Specialist of Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist and Head of Research at Pure Sports
• Visiting Lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire.

Email: b.s.neal@qmul.ac.uk

Tutor:

Dr Simon Lack PhD MSc (SEM) BSc (Hons) (Physiotherapy)

Simon completed his PhD at Queen Mary University London (QMUL) in 2017, studying the interaction of hip and foot biomechanics in the presentation and management of patellofemoral pain.

He graduated from Brunel University in 2005 with a first class degree in physiotherapy, and went on to study an MSc in Sports and Exercise Medicine at QMUL in 2010.

Simon is a senior lecturer and leads the MSc in Sports and Exercise Medicine at QMUL. He is Head of Research and a Specialist Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist at Pure Sports Medicine and Head of Medical Services for the ‘High Performance Sport’ Programme at the University of East London.

Previous experience includes junior and senior roles within the NHS, working in New Zealand with professional golfers, local rugby and football teams, and working for both large and small London based private practices.

The course venue

How to get there

This meeting will be presented through ZOOM.

You will receive a personalised meeting invite to take part in our first ever Online course!

Details about zoom can be found on their website: ZOOM!