Abstract
Objective: In today's ever changing healthcare environment, there is a growing need for outcomes collection. The benefits range from analyzing the success of physical therapy in practice to reporting to insurance agencies for reimbursement. In the low back pain population, outcomes are primarily collected through patient-driven tools with few provider-driven tools available to the clinician. The purpose of this case report is to define a new provider-driven outcome tool for the assessment of disability in patients with low back pain. Measurement Tool: The tool named Functional Movement Index (FMI) has five movements consisting of sit-to-stand, step up, lateral duck under, kneeling, and overhead reach. Each movement has a calculated starting point and is measured on a 0-5 point scale ranging from no disability to maximum disability or unable to perform. Method: Two patients with chronic low back pain were selected for the first administration of the FMI tool and also filled out the Oswestry Disability Index for comparison. Each patient was tested on the FMI and ODI at the time of their initial visit, performed physical therapy 2 times per week for 4 weeks, and retested during their eighth and final visit. Findings: Patient number one had a 20% improvement on the FMI compared to 22% on the ODI. Patient number two had a 12% improvement on the FMI compared to a 6% improvement on the ODI. Discussion: This is the first use of the FMI in clinical practice. There were similar scores between the ODI and the FMI with patient number one, but different scores with patient number two. These differences may be the result of the measurement of a new dimension of function. Future research is needed to determine the best movements for testing, proper scoring procedures, establishing test reliability, and whether or not this is a valid instrument for clinical practice.