Last updated: June 2026
You have sudden loss of bladder or bowel control alongside back pain • You have numbness between your legs or in the saddle area • You have rapidly worsening leg weakness • You have sudden severe tearing pain in your back or abdomen • You are unable to stand or walk following an injury • You feel acutely and seriously unwell alongside back pain. These may be life-threatening or time-critical emergencies.
The myBackPain assessment is a structured patient information tool built on clinical reasoning frameworks used in osteopathic practice. It is designed to help people with back pain understand the possible causes of their symptoms, identify features that may require urgent or medical attention, and make more informed decisions about seeking appropriate care.
It was developed by a registered osteopath with over ten years of clinical experience in spinal care, and draws on the clinical reasoning system used in the Osteospinal practitioner platform.
The assessment systematically screens for features that may suggest serious underlying pathology. When such features are present, it will direct you toward appropriate urgent care. However, no screening tool is infallible. If at any point you are concerned about your symptoms — regardless of what the assessment shows — seek professional medical advice. Your clinical instinct matters. A reassuring report does not override your own judgement that something is wrong.
The quality of your assessment report depends entirely on the accuracy and completeness of your answers. The assessment reasons from the information you provide. If answers are incomplete, inaccurate, or if significant symptoms are not disclosed, the report may not reflect your true clinical picture.
The assessment is calibrated for adults aged 16 and over with back pain as their primary concern. It may be less accurate for presentations that fall outside this scope — for example, predominantly leg pain without back pain, or symptoms that have multiple complex causes.
myBackPain.co.uk was developed by a practitioner registered with the General Osteopathic Council (GOsC). The clinical reasoning framework used in the assessment reflects current osteopathic and musculoskeletal best practice. However, clinical guidelines evolve, and individual presentations vary significantly. The assessment reflects general clinical principles — it does not account for the specific details of your full medical history in the way a clinician who knows you would.
Regardless of what your report shows, seek urgent medical assessment if you develop any of the following at any time:
myBackPain.co.uk and Osteospinal accept no liability for clinical decisions made in reliance on this assessment, or for any harm arising from use of or reliance on the tool. Full details are set out in our Terms of Use.
myBackPain.co.uk is a patient information and assessment tool. It is not a regulated medical device under current UK medical device regulations, as it does not perform diagnosis, monitoring, or treatment. Its purpose is to provide structured information and guidance to support informed decision-making. This regulatory position should be kept under review as UK AI and digital health regulations develop.
A note on appropriate use This tool has been built with genuine clinical care and with patient safety as the primary value. The safety screening, red flag identification, and referral guidance are not afterthoughts — they are at the core of the design. If this tool helps one person recognise that their back pain deserves urgent attention and act on that in time, it will have done its most important job. Please use it in the spirit it was intended: as a starting point for understanding, not an endpoint for decision-making.