Where should the study take place?

Chronic low back pain is common but includes substantial patient heterogeneity. PCORI expects the studies to provide new comparative effectiveness evidence that is relevant to patients who receive care in community-based primary care (i.e., non-specialty) settings. Thus, the enrolled patient population should be representative of patients seen in primary care settings. In contrast, the actual study interventions—lumbar fusion and multidisciplinary rehabilitation—are expected to take place in the appropriate specialty settings.