Welcome!

You and your patient can work together to facilitate their recovery


This is the online version of WhipPredict, a clinical prediction rule for whiplash. This is a research-generated tool for physiotherapists to predict the likelihood of their patients developing moderate/severe disability or experiencing full recovery following whiplash injury.


If you are already familiar with WhipPredict, please press Start and let your patient complete the questionnaire.



Once you press the Start button, a questionnaire page will appear. This questionnaire is for your patient, and it includes:

  • Name and age
  • The Neck Disability Index (NDI, 10 questions)
  • Additional questions about hyperarousal symptoms, which may appear depending on the patient’s age and scores on the NDI)

We believe that it is important that you inform the patient of the predicted outcome, rather than them having to find it themselves. For this reason, the results section of WhipPredict is protected by a password.

To access the password for the online tool or to request a downloadable hard copy of the tool, simply send an email to recover@uq.edu.au. Please write “WhipPredict password request” or “WhipPredict downloadable tool request” un the subject line, and do provide us your name and professional contact details in the body of the email.


For more detail – please see



Recovery following a whiplash injury is varied:

  • approximately 50% of individuals fully recover,
  • 25% develop persistent moderate/severe pain and disability,
  • and 25% experience milder levels of disability.

A clinical prediction rule (CPR) is a research-generated tool used to predict outcomes such as likelihood of developing moderate/severe disability or experiencing full recovery from whiplash injury.

In our study we observed:
  • an increased probability of developing chronic moderate/severe disability in the presence of older age and initially higher levels of NDI and hyperarousal symptoms (PDS) (positive predictive value [PPV] = 71%).
  • increased probability of full recovery in younger individuals with initially lower levels of neck disability (PPV = 71%).



About the clinical prediction rule:
Ritchie C, Hendrikz J, Jull G, Elliott J, Sterling M. External validation of a clinical prediction rule to predict full recovery and ongoing moderate/severe disability following acute whiplash injury. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 2015 Apr;45(4):242–50
Ritchie C, Hendrikz J, Kenardy J, Sterling M. Derivation of a clinical prediction rule to identify both chronic moderate/severe disability and full recovery following whiplash injury. Pain 2013 Oct;154(10):2198–206.

About the NDI: Vernon H, Mior S. The Neck Disability Index: a study of reliability and validity. J Manipulative Physiol Ther. 1991 Sep;14(7):409–15.

The online version of the WhipPredict questionnaire was designed and developed by Dr Angelo Basteris during his time working at RECOVER


We are currently undertaking a clinical trial where treatment is provided based on the risk classification of the patient. We are proposing that those classified as ‘low risk’ will need minimal intervention comprising of advice and simple exercises. Patients classified as ‘medium’ or ‘high risk’ require further assessment of physical (movement and muscle control, kinaesthetic awareness, sensory examination) and psychological factors such as recovery expectations and posttraumatic stress symptoms. Treatment will depend upon findings from this more detailed assessment.

For further information on the current (2015) evidence based Clinical Practice Guidelines for Acute Whiplash, visit the following website: http://www.maa.nsw.gov.au/for-professionals/for-health-professionals/acute-whiplash