Identifying homogenous subgroups within the greater population of cLBP is critical for developing new diagnostic paradigms and personalized treatment strategies. In order to identify these subgroups traits from all of the different domains must be assessed. The UCSF REACH Clinical Core will collect data from a large prospective and granular cohort of cLBP patients to: 1) delineate the complex interplay among socioeconomic, biologic, pathophysiologic, biomechanical, and psychological characteristics that contribute to cLBP; and 2) identify clinically relavent, mechanistically based phenotypes that can be used to define personalized treatment protocols. In support the overall goal of the BACPAC Research Program and the goals of UCSF REACH, the Clinical Core proposes the following Specific Aims:
Aim 1. Enroll and follow a prospective, longitudinal Clinical Cohort, n=400, capable of supporting deep phenotyping of cLBP patients based on combined biopsychosocial variables;
Aim 2 a. Enroll a large digitally based, cross-sectional, Digital Cohort, n=5000, that will allow testing and adoption of machine learning techniques that can lead to novel cLBP phenotyping algorithms;
Aim 2 b. Develop an engagement platform, called eREACH, to incentivize patient participation in the Digital Cohort by providing education, self-monitoring and self-help tools with the goal of supporting digital interventions for cLBP in the future;
Aim 3 a. Develop a large central cLBP Data Warehouse (DW) to organize, integrate, maintain, and archive data from several diverse data sources, including all measurement data collected from the Clinical and Digital cohorts; this DW will be a pivotal data resource for the UCSF REACH Research Project, the Informatics Core, other members of the BACPAC consortium, and future cLBP researchers;
Aim 3 b. Provide support/reporting to the Observational Study Monitoring Board