JOSPT Insights

The biopsychosocial model of health has been around since the late 1970s. In musculoskeletal rehabilitation, the biopsychosocial model is prominent in clinical practice guidelines for a variety of different conditions, with different approaches advocated for how to provide rehabilitation within the model.
Today, Dr Kate Jochimsen guides JOSPT Insights listeners through psychologically-informed rehabilitation practice - taking principles that have become quite prominent in the chronic low back pain field and seeing how they might apply to young, active people with chronic hip pain.
Dr Jochimsen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, a researcher at the Center for Health Outcomes and Interdisciplinary Research at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and a member of the Physical Therapy Residency Faculty at the MGH Institute for Health Professions. Her work bridges the gap between sports medicine and psychology, with a primary focus on chronic pain and hip injuries.
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RESOURCES
OSPRO yellow flags tool: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2016.6487
Screening for yellow flags - clinical framework: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2021.10570
Pain Catastrophizing Scale: https://www.sralab.org/rehabilitation-measures/pain-catastrophizing-scale
Association between pain and function in people with hip pain - systematic review: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41020468/
JOSPT's July 2026 hip-focused issue (10 hip articles): https://www.jospt.org/toc/jospt/56/7
Association for Applied Sport Psychology mental wellness resource center: https://appliedsportpsych.org/resources/mental-wellness-resource-center/
Why things hurt - TEDx with Professor Lorimer Moseley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwd-wLdIHjs
Psychologically informed practice in low back pain (case report): https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/josptcases.2025.0177
Psychologically informed physical therapy for musculoskeletal conditions (APTA paid course): https://www.orthopt.org/course/33-3-psychologically-informed-physical-therapy-for-musculoskeletal-disorders
Managing persistent pain (APTA paid course): https://learningcenter.apta.org/products/persistent-pain-management-certificate-a-comprehensive-learning-series

We're often asking or answering the question "why?" in clinical practice. Why does it hurt? Why does this treatment give me relief? Why is the problem not getting better? Sometimes it's easy to answer why, and sometimes it's not.
In today's episode, Dr Damian Keter (US Department of Veterans Affairs) explores and explains musculoskeletal treatment mechanisms. Dr Keter suggests some ways to approach responding to the why question, even when the treatment mechanism isn't clear. He shares his perspectives on person-centered care and precision medicine.
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RESOURCES
Understanding musculoskeletal treatment mechanisms: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2026.14486
Person-centered care and modern manual therapy: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/josptopen.2023.0812
The case for treatment pluralism: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2026.13992
Sequenced care pathway vs. pain navigator pathway for veterans with low back pain: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41926124/

Returning to sport after an ACL injury is often framed around a single construct: fear of reinjury. But what if fear doesn't tell the whole story?
In today's episode, Chelsea and Marquis speak with Cobie Starcevich about her team's qualitative evidence synthesis exploring how athletes experience and interpret reinjury concerns after ACL injury.
The team's findings suggest that what clinicians commonly label as "fear of reinjury" is actually a much broader, nuanced experience encompassing altered beliefs, assessments of threat, behavioral and cognitive coping strategies, physiological sensations, and concerns about the future.
Cobie explains what the findings mean for clinicians, and how clinicians can move beyond fear and into exploring the multidimensional experiences of injury with patients.
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RESOURCES
Qualitative evidence synthesis of athletes' experience and interpretation of reinjury concerns after ACL injury: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2026.13852

A patient might ask the clinician: "How long will it take me to get back to sport?" or "How long until I'm feeling back to myself again?". These questions ask the clinician to make a prognosis - to predict the future.

Often we rely on our clinical experience or intuition to answer with a prognosis. Sometimes we might know some prognostic factors, which can give us some big-picture ideas, but they're rarely enough to give the full picture.
Today physiotherapists and researchers Daniel Feller and Dr Alessandro Chiarotto (Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands) explain prognostic prediction models: what they are, how they might help in practice, and what to look for when you're deciding whether a tool like the STarT Back is suitable for your practice.

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RESOURCES

When is a prognostic prediction model ready for clinical use?: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2026.13868

Today we're talking about one very important milestone in rehabilitation after an ACL reconstruction: return to running. It's a milestone that sometimes gets overshadowed by its more flamboyant sibling, return to sport.

Brendan Butler joins JOSPT Insights to explore best practice in return to running. Brendan an Irish sports physiotherapist, who is currently working at the Aspetar Orthopaedic & Sports Medicine Hospital in Doha, Qatar. He's a member of the Aspetar ACL team, where he applies skills honed in Gaelic football, rugby, soccer and athletics.

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RESOURCES

Simple clinical measures that quantify knee loading symmetry during running: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41110241/

Clinician choices for return to running criteria: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/josptopen.2026.0195

Lower medial hamstring activity during running: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33782638/