Friedman BW, et al. - Researchers investigated whether three variables—the STarT Back Screening Tool score, patients’ own anticipated duration of low back pain (LBP), and the presence of pain 1 week after the Emergency Departments (EDs) visit— assessable shortly after symptom onset could independently predict poor 3-month outcomes among patients with LBP who present to an ED. They noted functional impairment in more than one-third of patients 3 months after an ED visit for acute, nontraumatic, nonradicular LBP. In about half as many patients (16%), moderate or severe LBP was less commonly reported. Only persistent pain at 1 week was identified to be independently associated with poor outcomes at 3 months among the three hypothesized predictor variables. In this cohort, the STarT Back Tool was not associated with poor outcomes despite its important role in the outpatient setting.