Pain is often what prompts patients to seek the care of a musculoskeletal rehabilitation clinician.

In today's episode, Dr Paul Mintken guides listeners through different ways to work with a person to help make sense of, and explain, unexplained pain.

Dr Mintken (Hawai'i Pacific University) is a board-certified Orthopaedic Clinical Specialist and a Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic and Manual Physical Therapists.

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RESOURCES

JOSPT Viewpoint article - The Worst Pain is an Unexplained Pain: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2025.13167

In Part 2 of our conversation with Dr Olivia Abdoo (Ultimate Fighting Championship), we dive deeper into one of the most common injuries in mixed martial arts (MMA) - concussion.

Dr Abdoo's experience treating UFC athletes provides an insight into working with athletes for whom skills including wrestling, striking, and grappling are crucial to performing well.

How to approach educating the athlete and everyone involved with them about concussion, ensuring the athlete can participate safely while recovering from concussion, what an MMA-specific concussion evaluation looks like, and the importance of sport-specificity in concussion rehabilitation - we hit on it all!

Given how common rotator cuff tears are, chances are you will work with someone who has a tear at some point in your career.

Do you know what patients will want from their rehabilitation? Are you confident with your approach to managing rotator cuff tears?

Today, Dr Kathryn Fahy, physiotherapist and researcher from Aspetar Orthopaedic & Sports Medicine Hospital, Doha discusses the CALMeR Cuff pathway. Dr Fahy developed CALMeR Cuff with patients, clinicians and researchers to guide care for people with large to massive rotator cuff tears.

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RESOURCES

Co-design of the CALMeR Cuff pathway: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2025.13342

A mention of pre-professional or professional dance might conjure thoughts of relentless, gruelling training hours, incredible performances and bodies pushed through high musculoskeletal demands.

Dr Melanie Fuller (University of Southern Queensland) has devoted her clinical career of almost 20 years to working with dancers - helping them stay healthy and performing well - and she has a similar focus in her research work.

Today we discuss the prevalence of musculoskeletal injury, specifically focusing on osteoarthritis.

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RESOURCES

Osteoarthritis in dancers (systematic review with meta-analysis): https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2025.12918

Tune in today for the latest consensus on rehabilitation approaches for people who have had meniscus surgery.

Orthopaedic surgeons and physical therapists from Europe and the US debated the best research evidence, and brought extensive clinical experience to the table, ultimately producing a 2-part series of summary papers.

Dr Arielle Giordano (University of Delaware) was one of the physical therapy leads on the project, and today she shares the most important messages from the consensus.

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RESOURCES

EU‐US Meniscus Rehabilitation 2024 Consensus - Rehabilitation after meniscus surgery: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/josptopen.2025.0162

In the return of Sports Corner, Dr Olivia Abdoo chats all things UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) and MMA (mixed martial arts).

UFC combines wrestling, grappling and striking, which makes for complex demands that contribute to complex injury epidemiology. Whether working with a Championship fighter or a recreational martial arts athlete, Dr Abdoo provides excellent guidance for clinicians who are planning rehabilitation and return to sport.

Concussion is common in UFC, so stay tuned for an upcoming episode with Dr Abdoo about her approach to concussion rehabilitation with UFC athletes.

Researchers are increasingly partnering with patients, clinicians and others who use research to design, conduct, report and disseminate research studies. Today we hear about a conversation that involved over 600 patients, clinicians and carers, who were supported to nominate their top priorities for research on shoulder pain.

Kristian Lyng (physiotherapst, PhD student at Aalborg University's Department of Health Science and Technology, and Center for General Practice) led the work as part of his PhD research looking at interventions for shared decision-making in collaboration with patients with subacromial pain syndrome.

Kristian discusses the challenges and opportunities in translating research to clinical practice, and the benefits to researchers of engaging patients and the public in doing musculoskeletal research.

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RESOURCES

Research priorities for atraumatic shoulder pain: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2025.13059

Patients as partners in research - It's the right thing to do: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2019.0106

Help for researchers wanting to engage patients as research partners: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2020.0104

How to talk about compensation with patient partners: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2020.0106

Engaging patients and the public in musculoskeletal research: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2024.12668

There's a range of different interventions at your disposal when managing spine pain.

Today we're focusing on spinal manipulative therapy, and asking questions like: does it matter how you apply a manipulation to get the best outcomes for the patient?

Answering the questions is Dr Casper Nim from the University of Southern Denmark. Casper is an Associate Professor, chiropractor, and senior researcher at the Spine Centre of Southern Denmark.

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RESOURCES

Does it matter how you apply spinal manipulative therapy? Network meta-analysis: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2025.12707

Does targeting a specific vertebral level make a difference? Systematic review: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2023.11962

Effect on clinical outcomes when targeting spinal manipulative therapy. Randomised controlled trial: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32884045/

Preference randomised trials: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/josptmethods.2025.0129

JOSPT Methods journal website: https://www.jospt.org/toc/jospt-methods/current

The anterior talofibular ligament (ATFL) and the Achilles tendon captures much of our ankle attention. As JOSPT Insights listeners know, there's plenty more to the ankle than the ATFL.

Today, Liz Bayley shares her approach to diagnosing, managing and ideally, preventing ankle pain in active people. Liz covers diagnosing the problem, where imaging fits, and how to support return to function, including high-level sport.

Liz is a former professional dancer, who now works as a dance-specialist physiotherapist. Her clinic is in London's West End, in close proximity to the freelance professional and student dancers she works with, at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, and on 'Matilda The Musical' in Covent Garden.

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RESOURCES

Lateral ankle ligament sprains clinical practice guideline: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2021.0302

Updated model of chronic ankle instability: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31162943/

Predictors of chronic ankle instability: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26912285/

Intrinsic foot muscle training systematic review: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35724360/

Neuromuscular electrical stimulation for foot intrinsic muscles: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35142810/

Hip arthroscopy is a common surgical procedure in athletes and active people, and it's not surprising that this clinical population is focused on returning to sport. Today, Dr Matthew King, physiotherapist and Senior Lecturer from La Trobe University's Discipline of Physiotherapy in Melbourne, Australia, discussed return to sport outcomes after hip arthroscopy.

Dr King led a team that synthesised and analysed return to sport outcomes after hip arthroscopy from 45 studies and over 5000 participants. The team's focus was on sex and gender differences, and how the return to sport outcomes change with increasing time after surgery.

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RESOURCES

Are women less likely to return to sport compared to men following hip arthroscopy? A systematic review with meta-analysis: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2025.12813