Research

Prof Matthew Scott-Young has been practicing evidence based medicine for over two decades and our research has received several national and international awards.

An evidence based approach combines our clinical experience with the best evidence from around the world to determine which treatment is best for you. Before a surgeon can understand their clinical results and improve, they first need to understand and measure their patient’s outcomes from treatment under their supervision.

We firmly believe that you must measure your results to ensure you are continually improving. Our patients’ results are measured by Patient Reported Outcome Measures (known as PROMs).  These PROMs provide valuable information about our patients’ experiences. They enable us to understand and compare their outcomes with those reported globally and see the effectiveness of treatments ‘in our hands’. The collection and measurement of PROMs is important in developing a patient focussed health care system and helps determine the value of our treatments to patients.

At Gold Coast Spine, we collect PROMs at each important point of your treatment pathway – when we first meet you, before any surgery is performed and at regular intervals after surgery. There is a minimum of one year follow up after surgery is performed.  Some procedures, such as total disc replacement surgery, involve continuing annual patient follow up with PROMs so that long-term patient data can be gained. This helps the surgeon and future patients understand the longevity of the results.

Through our partnership with Bond University, we have established the broad study: Clinical and patient outcomes of spinal surgery. As part of this study, our clinical data is collected, analysed independently by academics and reported under an ethics committee approved pathway. By undertaking clinical research we can continue to provide high quality and effective spine care. We also present the research at national and international spine conferences and publish articles in journals relating to the treatment of the spine.

A selection of our papers can be found on our News & Resources page.