2015, a year on NOIjam

2015 has been our biggest year yet on NOIjam – our readership has grown larger and spread further, and we now have more than 300 eclectic posts that, we believe, are beginning to form a rich repository of up to date pain science, educational clinical stories, a growing list of neuroscience nuggets, and even some ‘out there’ thinking.

We’re taking a short break over coming weeks, but to tide you over (along with the aforementioned 300 posts) here are the 10 most popular posts for 2015:

10. Launching The Explain Pain Handbook: Protectometer

The Launch of The Explain Pain Handbook: Protectometer was a special night celebrating years of hard work and featuring some special guests, an operatic performance, a real life Sarah-Bella, and of course, delectable Dim sims.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_wqVY91Fcs&w=560&h=315]

9. A friction free ‘glide path’ for nerves – Neuroscience Nugget No 12

This little nugget was on the mesoneurium, an overlooked bit of connective tissue that is “kind of like a condom around the nerve” that makes nerves feel slippery when palpated and allows nerves to slide and glide easily in the body.

8. Sticky stars and the neural universe

Our dear friend Mick Thacker was the star of this post – his entire presentation on glial cells, neuronal-glial interactions and pain, from noi2012. Mick is one of the most engaging, intelligent, and effective public speakers you will see and makes the incredibly complex domain of neuroimmune system function immediately clinically relevant.

7. The sural nerve – the appendix of the nervous system / Nerves knowledge and theratube 

A dead heat for 7th place and a serendipitous pairing of these two posts. Michel Coppieters and Terje Skulstad shared a clinical story that anyone who treats runners should read (along with some very practical anatomy and techniques), while David Butler features in a short clip demonstrating the educational usefulness of theratube when discussing peripheral nerves.

6. Tennis Elbow – Centre Court

A NOInote from October, this post presented a short video of David Butler discussing some neurodynamic considerations when treating lateral epicondylagia. This has been one of NOI’s most watched video’s ever – click on the link above to find out why.

5. Building a simple curriculum

We’ve been banging on a lot this year about ‘curriculum’ and believe it is one of the key factors that separates effective Explain Pain from poorly considered and delivered ‘education’ that occurs in clinics and research settings. This post introduced the idea of Key Education Performance Indicators (KEPIs) as a way of planning and tracking a well considered EP intervention.

4. Mobilisation of the Neuroimmune System

It was always there – the ‘immune’ bit, and with the introduction of the revised and updated course Mobilisation of the Neuroimmune System, the immune bit received the attention it deserves. Our favourite idea to come out of this post was the varying definitions (all relevant) of mobilise – ‘to make ready for movement’, ‘to assemble or prepare something in response to need’ and to ‘liberate or excite quiescent material to physiologic activity’ – juicy stuff.

3. Arthritis Victoria Koadlow Public Lecture 2015

David Butler was invited by Arthritis Victoria to deliver the Koadlow Public lecture and made the trip across the border in August. The event was booked out well before it commenced, but Arthritis Victoria filmed the whole thing and made it freely available to all. It’s worth watching to the very end to catch the off the cuff Q&A!

2. DIM SIMs

An introduction to DIMs, SIMs and The Protectometer. This new way of thinking, and talking about pain has fundamentally changed everything we do at NOI, and, based on the amazing response from thousands of readers, has changed lives.

1. The Perils of Explaining Pain

This NOI note from April, along with the DIM SIMs post at number two, were clear leaders on this list, each with nearly double the number of views compared to other posts on this list. Perhaps fittingly in its number one spot, this post featured a reflection from David Butler and Lorimer Moseley on 15 years of Explaining Pain and tackled some of the misconceptions that still abound regarding what Explain Pain is. The closing paragraph is worth pondering, and in many ways sums up our goals for NOIjam:

“Overall, this is a call to be careful with Explain Pain – to understand what it is, as well as realise what it isn’t, to acknowledge the skills required to effectively deliver Explain Pain, and develop them where necessary, and finally, to recognise the need to think differently and more broadly, bringing in the rich world of education science and psychology, in the effort to achieve the very worthy goal of pain education for all.”

Whether you have missed them and are catching up, or are returning for another read, we hope that you enjoy these posts, and as always, invite your comments and thoughts below.

But before we sign off for a short break, we need to thank the entire NOI team who work tirelessly to help support NOIjam with graphic design, video creation, editing input and fresh ideas, and you, our readers, who encourage us and challenge us, and are truly the reason that NOIjam exists.

We’ll be back in early January with more fresh posts, even more videos and clips, and a few new surprises!

Wishing you all a very happy and SIM filled holiday season,

Tim Cocks and David Butler