Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/1060121
Two formal and massage-specific PBRNs exist in the United States and are listed within the US Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) PBRN Registry. MassageNet (www. massagenet.org) was founded in 2009 and was established with the intention to facilitate communication and linkage between massage practice, education (students and teachers), and research. MassageNet's AHRQ registration page (https://.pbrn.ahrq.gov/pbrn-registry/ massagenet) indicates MassageNet has over 600 member clinics and practices from 47 US states and territories with potential access to approximately 14,500 patients. To date, no clinical trials have been conducted in conjunction with MassageNet, but a recent publication in Preventive Medicine Reports described findings from a survey conducted through MassageNet examining health promotion within massage practice. 8 In addition to MassageNet and its broad US representation, a smaller, regional- specific US PBRN provides a model for a more locally driven and supported PBRN approach. The Massage Northern Ohio (MNO) PBRN was founded in 2014 and was listed on the AHRQ PBRN registry in 2015 with 68 practices or clinics (https://pbrn.ahrq.gov/pbrn-registry/ massage-northern-ohio-practice-based- research-network). Though relatively small compared to traditional or other complementary therapy related PBRNs, the MNO-PBRN website (www.mnopbrn. weebly.com) highlights several completed affiliated studies, including a pilot randomized controlled trial examining massage effectiveness on cramping in dialysis patients. 9 Both MassageNet and MNO-PBRN have great potential to provide a means through which interested massage therapists can engage more with research while providing frameworks for others interested in developing similar networks in their therapist communities. The massage therapy field is ripe with interesting and important questions that educational and clinical practice settings provide the ideal laboratory for. PBRNs provide mediums through which research- interested massage clinicians, practices, and educators can link to researchers and vice versa in efforts to increase massage-related, practice-based research. Such activity would inevitably increase the massage field's contribution to the growing evidence within its work; an occurrence that would bring us more in line with other health- focused applied disciplines. While the PBRN resource is not large in the massage field at this time, it is poised for growth potential and, at the very least, is something all research interested massage therapists, educators, and stakeholders should be knowledgeable of, and engaged with, when and if the opportunity presents itself. Notes 1. Niki Munk and Karen Boulanger, "Adaptation of the CARE Guidelines for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork Publications: Efforts to Improve the Impact of Case Reports," International Journal of Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork 7, no. 3 (2014): 32. 2. US Department of Health and Human Services, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (home page), accessed November 2018, www. ahrq.gov.; US Department of Health and Human Services, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, "Practice-Based Research Networks," accessed November 2018, https://pbrn.ahrq.gov. 3. David L. Sackett et al., "Evidence Based Medicine: What It Is and What It Isn't," BMJ 312 (1996): 71–2. 4. Larry A. Green and John Hickner, "A Short History of Primary Care Practice-Based Research Networks: From Concept to Essential Research Laboratories," The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine 19, no. 1 (2006): 1–10; accessed November 2019, available at www.jabfm.org/content/19/1/1.full.pdf. 5. Amie Steel et al., "An Overview of the Practitioner Research and Collaboration Initiative (PRACI): A Practice-Based Research Network for Complementary Medicine," BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 17, no. 1 (2017): 87. SOMATIC RESE ARCH 6. William G. Elder et al., "Real-World Massage Therapy Produces Meaningful Effectiveness Signal for Primary Care Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain: Results of a Repeated Measures Cohort Study," Pain Medicine 18, no. 7 (2017): 1394–1405; Jerrilyn Cambron, "Real- World Massage Research and Therapist Research Involvement," Massage & Bodywork 32, no. 6 (November/December, 2017): 44–7; Niki Munk, "4 Points Arising From Low-Back Pain Study," Massage & Bodywork 33, no. 1 (January/February, 2018): 46–9. 7. Niki Munk et al., "The Intersection of Massage Practice and Research: Community Massage Therapists as Research Personnel on an NIH- Funded Effectiveness Study," International Journal of Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork 7, no. 2 (2014): 10. 8. Ann Blair Kennedy et al., "Advancing Health Promotion through Massage Therapy Practice: A Cross-Sectional Survey Study," Preventive Medicine Reports 11 (2018): 49–55. 9. Diane Mastnardo et al., "Intradialytic Massage for Leg Cramps Among Hemodialysis Patients: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial," International Journal of Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork 9, no. 2 (2016): 3. Niki Munk, PhD, LMT, is an assistant professor of health sciences at Indiana University, a Kentucky-licensed massage therapist, a visiting fellow with the Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine, and mother of two young daughter-scientists. Munk's research explores real-world massage therapy for chronic pain, trigger point self-care, massage for amputation-related sequelae, and the reporting and impact of massage-related case reports. Contact her at nmunk@iu.edu. Yo u r M & B i s w o r t h 2 C E s ! G o t o w w w. a b m p . c o m / c e t o l e a r n m o r e . 45