I’ve been treated by numerous health care professionals for chronic low back pain. Each one seems to have their own forms to fill out. There’s always a bunch of questions about the pain. Sometimes they ask me what I can and can’t do. They tell me these questionnaires are important to track my progress. Wouldn’t it be better if everyone used the same methods to measure progress?

This is a very good question. Standardizing research results so that everyone collects and reports the same data would be very helpful. Scientists could analyze and use the results to find better ways to treat various health conditions.

The problem is that each condition has its own unique features. Even with a single symptom like back pain, different tools are used. This may depend on where you are in the process, and what are the goals of treatment.

For example, early on there is a need to know levels of pain. The health care worker may ask you to rank your pain from zero (no pain) to 10 (most pain). Treatment is directed at reducing the intensity, frequency, and/or duration of your pain. Once the pain persists past the expected time for healing, then it’s called chronic pain.

The goal of treatment may be to increase your function without changing the pain intensity. In other words, the therapist helps you to do more within the confines of your pain. If that’s the case, then functional tests may be used to measure results of treatment. Each test is different based on the activities you are working on.

There is a move in research circles to try and coordinate efforts to collect and analyze data. The World Health Organization (WHO) is working hard at bringing this information to all health care professionals. If everyone uses the same outcome measures but different measuring sticks (tools), then researchers might be able to use one another’s results to study specific diseases and conditions.