Imaging for Low Back Pain Still Prevalent Despite Guidelines, Provider Says

Despite medical treatment guidelines recommending against MRIs and other types of imaging in the early stages of low back pain, imaging remains a common practice, a guideline author said. “There’s still a lot of imaging going on,” said Dr. Kurt Hegmann, one of the authors of an American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine guideline on low back pain. “The boat turns slowly.” An updated version of the ACOEM practice guideline on diagnostic tests in low back disorders was published this month in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine,...