It is tempting to blindly trust research papers, but how reliable are they in fact? In this episode our ATW students and physiotherapists Janina, Melanie and Jule examine the challenges of designing and undertaking reliable
clinical studies.
Source:
Grenier, J. P., Thiel, A. (2025). Evaluating Manual Therapy in
Musculoskeletal Pain: Why Certain Trial Designs May Overestimate Effectiveness - A Scoping Review. European Journal of Pain . https://doi.org/10.1002/ejp.70150

S4 E6 You rethink Pain
Pain: we know it – we feel it – but do we truly understand it? Tom Frankenstein, from the University of Lübeck, aims to answer this question. During the research symposium, he spoke about spatial summation of pain, a hitherto unresearched topic. We had the privilege of listening to the session and we'd like to give you a quick overview of this phenomenon.

Don’t be shy – Just stop by!
If you'd like to do some background reading, here are a few references:
1. Frankenstein, T., Szikszay, T. M., Coghill, R. C., Luedtke, K. & Adamczyk, W. M. (2025). Wird die räumliche Summierung von Schmerzen durch die empfundene Größe der schmerzhaften Oberfläche geprägt? SPECTILE. Physioscience, 21(S 02), S7. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0045-1811290
2. Adamczyk, W. M., Berendt, N., Trillenberg, P., Hanssen, J., Poehlmann, J., Kapitza, C., Luebke, L., Luedtke, K., Brüggemann, N. & Szikszay, T. M. (2025). Disrupted spatial but not temporal aspects of nociceptive processing determine painful polyneuropathies. Pain, 166(11), e623–e634. https://doi.org/10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003666
3. Adamczyk, W. M., Ramu, V., Jackson, C., Schulze, G., Goldschneider, K. R., Kashikar-Zuck, S., King, C. D., & Coghill, R. C. (2025). Radiation of pain: psychophysical evidence for a population coding mechanism in humans. Pain, 166(6), 1285–1295. https://doi.org/10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003474

Music by Mike Kripak from Pixabay.

As future physiotherapists, we (Mika, Ilka and Paula) want to actively shape where our profession is heading, especially in terms of working conditions.
In today’s episode, you will learn what New Work is, why it is needed in physiotherapy and how it can be implemented effectively.
We also refer to the abstract of Nadine Schlesinger’s Master’s thesis, which provides the scientific background for this topic.
You can find the abstract here: https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0045-1811289

Physios Dominik, Jonathan and Mia examine Dr. Jean-Pascal Grenier's research into the way low back pain is presented on Austrian healthcare websites.
Additionally, they introduce the German national care guidelines on non-specific low back pain.
References:
Grenier, J. P., & Thiel, A. (2025). Low Back Pain Information on Austrian Healthcare Websites: Often Inaccurate, Biomedically Oriented, and Not Aligned With Clinical Guidelines-A Cross-Sectional Study. https://doi.org/10.1002/msc.70120
https://register.awmf.org/assets/guidelines/nvl-007l_S3_Kreuzschmerz_2017-03-abgelaufen.pdf

In this episode, inspired by the Research Symposium, physios Charlotte, Lisa and Emma discuss the physiotherapy school system in Germany and present new learning strategies. Find out how we can reshape the future in physio!

Does less pain equal more movement after knee arthroplasty? The answer might surprise you!

In this episode our ATW students and physiotherapists Sarah, Johann and Lennard explore physical activity after total knee arthroplasty and its influencing factors.

References

Activity, M. P. (2020, 25. November). WHO guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240015128

Crawford, D. A., Adams, J. B., Hobbs, G. R., Berend, K. R. & Lombardi, A. V. (2020). Higher Activity Level Following Total Knee Arthroplasty Is Not Deleterious to Mid-Term Implant Survivorship. The Journal Of Arthroplasty, 35(1), 116–120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arth.2019.07.044

Jacobs, H., Seeber, G. H., Lazovic, D., Maus, U. & Hoffmann, F. (2023). Disease burden of and expectations from surgery in patients prior to total knee arthroplasty: Results of the prospective FInGK study. The Knee, 41, 257–265. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.knee.2023.01.020

Steinmetz, J. D., Culbreth, G. T., Haile, L. M., Rafferty, Q., Lo, J., Fukutaki, K. G., Cruz, J. A., Smith, A. E., Vollset, S. E., Brooks, P. M., Cross, M., Woolf, A. D., Hagins, H., Abbasi-Kangevari, M., Abedi, A., Ackerman, I. N., Amu, H., Antony, B., Arabloo, J., . . . Lucchetti, G. (2023). Global, regional, and national burden of osteoarthritis, 1990–2020 and projections to 2050: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021. The Lancet Rheumatology, 5(9), e508–e522. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2665-9913(23)00163-7

Advancing technology offers many opportunities to improve the quality of physiotherapy training.
In this episode our ATW physiotherapists Giuliana, Sarah and Jonny discuss the use of AI as it revolutionizes physiotherapy training.

This November we are hosting the German Society for Physiotherapy Science's 9th Symposium. Our students will be taking a look at some of the latest ideas in physiotherapy and sharing them with a global audience.