Urgent Care Management of Acute Low Back Pain: A Review of Current Evidence

CME Information

Date of Original Release: September 1, 2025. Date of most recent review: August 18, 2025. Termination date: September 1, 2028.

Accreditation: EB Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Credit Designation: EB Medicine designates this enduring material for a maximum of 4 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits^TM. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Specialty CME: Not applicable. For more information, contact Customer Service at 678-366-7933.

AAFP Accreditation: The AAFP has reviewed Evidence- Based Urgent Care and deemed it acceptable for AAFP credit. Term of approval is from 11/01/2024 to 10/31/2025. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. This session, Urgent Care Management of Acute Low Back Pain: A Review of Current Evidence, is approved for 4.0 enduring material AAFP Prescribed credits.

AOA Accreditation: Evidence-Based Urgent Care is eligible for 4 Category 2-B credit hours per issue by the American Osteopathic Association.

Needs Assessment: The need for this educational activity was determined by a practice gap analysis; a survey of medical staff; review of morbidity and mortality data from the CDC, AHA, NCHS, and ACEP; and evaluation responses from prior educational activities for urgent care and emergency medicine physicians.

Target Audience: This internet enduring material is designed for physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and residents in the urgent care and family practice settings.

Goals: Upon completion of this activity, you should be able to: (1) identify areas in practice that require modification to be consistent with current evidence in order to improve competence and performance; (2) develop strategies to accurately diagnose and treat both common and critical urgent care presentations; and (3) demonstrate informed medical decision-making based on the strongest clinical evidence.

CME Objectives: Upon completion of this activity, learners should be able to: (1) outline the features of the history and physical examination of patients with low back pain to appropriately direct urgent care management; (2) list red-flag findings for serious spinal pathology in patients with low back pain and indications for emergent referral; (3) describe diagnostic options in the urgent care setting for patients with low back pain; and (4) describe evidence-based pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic treatments for low back pain.

Discussion of Investigational Information: As part of the activity, faculty may be presenting investigational information about pharmaceutical products that is outside Food and Drug Administration approved labeling. Information presented as part of this activity is intended solely as continuing medical education and is not intended to promote off-label use of any pharmaceutical product.

Disclosure: It is the policy of EB Medicine to ensure objectivity, balance, independence, transparency, and scientific rigor in all CME activities. All individuals in a position to control content have disclosed all financial relationships with ACCME-defined ineligible companies. EB Medicine has as-sessed all relationships with ineligible companies disclosed, identified those financial relationships deemed relevant, and appropriately mitigated all relevant financial relationships based on each individual’s role(s). Please find disclosure information for this activity below:

Planners

• Tracey Quail Davidoff, MD (Editor-in-Chief):
  • Pfizer (consulting fees)
  • AstraZeneca (consultant/advisor)
  • GSK (consultant/advisor)

Faculty

• Tracey Quail Davidoff, MD (Update Author):
  • Pfizer (consulting fees)
  • AstraZeneca (consultant/advisor)
  • GSK (consultant/advisor)
• Martha Williams, PA-C (Peer Reviewer): Nothing to Disclose
• Roger Wu, MD (Peer Reviewer): Nothing to Disclose
• Bradley Laymon, PA-C (Coding Content Author): Nothing to Disclose
• Anneke Smith, MS (Content Editor): Nothing to Disclose
• Angie Wallace (Content Editor): Nothing to Disclose

Commercial Support: This issue of Evidence-Based Urgent Care did not receive any commercial support.