Written by AI.
Tested against the research.
Everything on rugpijnwatnu.nl is drafted by AI: the text, the headings and the findings. That is not a side note, it is the idea behind this site. It has recently made something possible that could not be done before: bringing the science on back pain into plain language, free and without fuss, with nobody having a stake in the outcome, and holding it against the latest research again and again.
What AI does here
AI looks up the guidelines and systematic reviews on back pain, compares them, and writes every page from them: what is happening in your back, what you can do yourself, what a treatment achieves and how strong the evidence for it is. The numbers, the rating of the evidence for each treatment and the headings come from the same process.
The AI is Claude, the model made by Anthropic. Most claims carry their source, so you can check where they come from yourself. All sources together are on the sources page.
Why AI
The research on back pain is vast and keeps moving. One person cannot keep up with all of it every month, and those who do, such as a clinic or a professional body, often have a stake in the outcome. AI can put the claims on this site next to the latest research again every month, and it has no practice to fill and nothing to sell.
This site is linked to no party at all: no advertising, no sponsors, no affiliate links, and nobody earns anything from it. That does not make the content flawless. That is why the AI does not work on its own judgement, but by fixed rules.
The fixed rules
The AI follows a fixed procedure, the same at every check. These are the rules that matter most.
Independent research first
Whether a treatment works, and by how much, comes from systematic reviews and meta-analyses, such as those from Cochrane, The Lancet, JAMA and The BMJ, and from independent bodies such as NICE, the WHO and the Dutch Zorginstituut. Single studies may sharpen a number, but do not overturn a conclusion on their own.
No verdicts of its own on studies
The AI collects and compares what researchers have already carefully weighed. It does not weigh studies or calculate effects itself: the literature describes that as a known pitfall.
A number and a source
A treatment that "works" without saying by how much does not belong on this site. When the check finds a number without a source, it gets one or goes. Satisfaction does not count as evidence: what matters is pain and function.
Guidelines side by side
The Dutch NHG and KNGF guidelines determine what you meet in a Dutch consulting room, so they carry weight. Where a professional body recommends its own treatment, that recommendation also needs independent support. Where guidelines contradict each other, or diverge from the research, we do not pick a side but explain the difference.
One new study is a signal
A single new trial does not change a claim on this site. That only happens once a review or an independent body has weighed it. If a large new study directly contradicts something, a human decides.
Checked again and again
About once a month the procedure goes through the register of medical claims again: does the number still hold, does the source really say this, is there new research that changes anything? It also searches the pages for claims that are not in the register yet, and looks for a new version of the NHG, KNGF, NICE and WHO guidelines. Every correction is recorded: what it said, what it became and why.
What a human decides
The site is maintained by Joris Boer. He does not write the text himself, but he is responsible for what appears: nothing goes online without his approval. Choices that change the character of the site, such as moving a treatment from "recommended" to "advised against", the AI puts to him rather than making them itself. Nor does the procedure change the questions and thresholds of the self-assessment on its own: there it only makes proposals. Who he is and why this site exists is on the about page.
What the dates mean
Every page shows two dates at the top. "Last updated" is the day the content of that page last really changed: a new layout or an extra link does not count. "Sources checked" is the day of the last check round: every claim in the register gone through, and the pages searched for claims that were not in it yet.
That date only moves forward when that check has really been done, never by itself.
What AI cannot do, and what is still missing
AI can make mistakes: copy a number wrongly, or read more into a source than it says. The fixed rules and the monthly check are there to catch that, but they do not catch everything. No doctor or physiotherapist has reviewed the content yet. That is the most important next step for this site.
Spotted something that is wrong, or BIG-registered and willing to read along? Email redactie@rugpijnwatnu.nl. And if you are unsure about your own symptoms, when to see a doctor is the place to start.
Read the medical disclaimer for what this site can and cannot do.